THE JUMPING FROG. 



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solid as a gob of mud, and fall to scratching the side of his head with his hind foot as indifferent as 

 as if he hadn't no idea he'd been doin' any more'n any frog might do. You never see a frog so 

 modest and straightfor'ard as he was, for all he was so gifted. And when it come to fair and square 

 jumping on a dead level, he could get over more ground at one straddle than any animal of his 

 breed you ever see. Jumping on a dead level was his strong suit, you understand ; and when it 

 «ome to that. Smiley would ante up money on him as long as he had a red. Smiley was monstrous 



proud of his frog, and well he might be, for fellers that had traveled and been everywheres, all said he 

 laid over any frog that ever they see. 



Well, Smiley kep' the beast in a little lattice box, and he used to fetch him down town sometimes 

 and lay for a bet. One day a feller — a stranger in the camp, he was — come acrost him with his box, 

 and says : 



" What might it be that you've got in the box ? " 



And Smiley says, sorter indiSerent-like, " It might be a parrot, or it might be a canary, maybe, 

 lut it ain't — it's only just a frog.'' 

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