34 MARK TWAIN'S SKETCHES. 



And the feller took it, and looked at it careful, and turned it round this way and that, and says, 

 " H'm — so 'tis. Well, what's he good for ? " 



" Well," Smiley, says, easy and careless, " he's good enough for one thing, I should judge — he can 

 outjump any frog in Calaveras county." 



The feller took the box again, and took another long, particular look, and give it back to Smiley, 

 and says, very deliberate, " Well," he says, " I don't see no p'ints about that frog that's any better'n 

 any other frog." 



" Maybe you don't," Smiley says. " Maybe you understand frogs and maybe you don't understand 

 'em ; maybe you've had experience, and maybe you ain't only a amature, as it were. Anyways, I've 

 got my opinion and I'll resk forty dollars that he can outjump any frog in Calaveras county." 



And the feller studied a minute, and then says, kinder sad like, " Well, I'm only a stranger here, 

 and I ain't got no frog ; but if I had a frog, I'd bet you." 



And then Smiley says, " That's all right — that's all right — if you'll hold my box a minute, I'll go 

 and get you a frog." And so the feller took the box, and put up his forty dollars along with Smiley's, 

 and set down to wait. 



So he set there a good while thinking and thinking to hisself, and then he got the frog out and 

 prized his mouth open and took a teaspoon and filled him full of quail shot — filled him pretty near 

 up to his chin — and set him on the floor. Smiley he went to the swamp and slopped around in the 

 mud for a long time, and finally he ketched a frog, and fetched him in, and give him to this feller, 

 and says : 



" Now, if you're ready, set him alongside of Dan'l, with his fore-paws just even with Dan'l's, and 

 I'll give the word." Then he says, "One — two — three — git!" and him and the feller touched up 

 the frogs from behind, and the new frog hopped off lively, but Dan'l give a heave, and hysted up 

 his shoulders — so — like a Frenchman, but it warn't no use — ^he couldn't budge ; he was planted as 

 solid as a church, and he couldn't no more stir than if he was anchored out. Smiley was a good, 

 deal surprised, and he was disgusted too, but he didn't have no idea what the matter was, of course. 



The feller took the money and started away ; and when he was going out at the door, he sorter 

 jerked his thumb over his shoulder — so — at Dan'l, and says again, very deliberate, " Well," he says 

 " / don't see no p'ints about that frog that's any better'n any other frog.'' 



Smiley he stood scratching his head and looking down at Dan'l a long time, and at last he says, 

 " I do wonder what in the nation that frog throw'd off for — I wonder if there ain't something the 

 matter with him — he 'pears to look mighty baggy, somehow." And he ketched Dan'l by the nap 

 of the neck, and hefted him, and says, "Why blame my cats if he don't weigh five pound !" and 

 • turned him upside down and he belched out a double handful of shot. And then he see how it 

 was, and he was the maddest man — he set the frog down and took out after that feller, but he never 

 ketched him. And " 



[Here Simon Wheeler heard his name called from the front yard, and got up to see what was. 



