
The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County
by Mark Twain
'The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County' Summary
The narrator is sent by a friend to interview an old man, Simon Wheeler, who might know the location of an old acquaintance named Leonidas W. Smiley. Finding Simon at an old mining camp, the narrator asks him if he knows anything about Leonidas; Simon appears not to, and instead tells a story about Jim Smiley, a man who had visited the camp years earlier.
Jim loves to gamble and will offer to bet on anything and everything, from horse races to dogfights, to the health of the local parson's wife. He catches a frog, whom he names Dan'l Webster, and spends three months training it to jump. When a stranger visits the camp, Jim shows off Dan'l and offers to bet $40 that it can out-jump any other frog in Calaveras County. The stranger, unimpressed, says that he would take the bet if he had a frog, so Jim goes out to catch one, leaving him alone with Dan'l. While Jim is away, the stranger pours lead shot down Dan'l's throat. Once Jim returns, he and the stranger set the frogs down and let them loose. The stranger's frog jumps away while Dan'l does not budge, and the surprised and disgusted Jim pays the $40 wager. After the stranger has departed, Jim notices Dan'l's sluggishness and picks the frog up, finding it to be much heavier than he remembers. When Dan'l belches out a double handful of lead shot, Jim realizes that he has been cheated and chases after the stranger, but never catches him.
At this point in the story, Simon excuses himself to go outside for a moment. The narrator realizes that Jim has no connection to Leonidas and gets up to leave, only to have Simon stop him at the door, offering to tell him about a yellow, one-eyed, stubby-tailed cow that Jim had owned. Rather than stay to hear another pointless story, the narrator excuses himself and leaves. He muses that his friend may have fabricated Leonidas as a pretext to trick him into listening to Simon's anecdotes.
Book Details
Language
EnglishOriginal Language
EnglishPublished In
1865Authors

Mark Twain
United States
Twain was fascinated with science and scientific inquiry. He developed a close and lasting friendship with Nikola Tesla, and the two spent much time together in Tesla's laboratory. Twain patented thre...
Books by Mark TwainDownload eBooks
Listen/Download Audiobook
- Select Speed
Related books

The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield
"The Garden Party" is a 1922 short story by Katherine Mansfield. It was first published (as "The Garden-Party") in three parts in the Saturday Westmin...

Rover Vol. 01 No. 08 by Lawrence Labree
The Rover was a weekly magazine of tales, poetry, and engravings, original and selected, published in the United States from 1843 to 1855. It was edit...

Whale by Ellis Parker Butler
Ellis Parker Butler's "Whale" is a humorous short story set in New York City. It follows the comical misadventures of a banker who discovers a whale i...

Prelude by Katherine Mansfield
Prelude is a short story by Katherine Mansfield. It was first published by the Hogarth Press in July 1918, after Virginia Woolf encouraged her to fini...

A Slav Soul and Other Stories by Aleksandr Kuprin
In "A Slav Soul and Other Stories," Aleksandr Kuprin masterfully crafts a collection of narratives that offer an intimate glimpse into the complexitie...

Red Shadows by Robert Ervin Howard
Red Shadows is the first of a series of stories featuring Howard’s puritan avenger, Solomon Kane. Kane tracks his prey over land and sea, enters the j...

阿Q正傳 (The True Story of Ah Q) by Xun Lu
The True Story of Ah Q is a seminal work of modern Chinese literature by Lu Xun. It is an episodic novella that follows the life of Ah Q, a poverty-st...

The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad
"The Secret Sharer" is a short story by Polish-British author Joseph Conrad, originally written in 1909 and first published in two parts in the August...

The Half-Breed: A Tale of the Western Frontier by Walt Whitman
The Half-Breed; A Tale of the Western Frontier is a fictional story written by Walt Whitman in 1845, which was originally published under the name of...

Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville
"Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street" is a short story by the American writer Herman Melville, first serialized anonymously in two parts i...
Reviews for The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County
No reviews posted or approved, yet...