and kep’ him in practice so constant, that he’d nail a fly every time as fur as he could see him.  Smiley said all a frog wanted was education and he could do ’most any thing, and I believe him.  Why, I’ve seen him set Dan’l Webster down here on this floor—­Dan’l Webster was the name of the frog—­and sing out, ‘Flies, Dan’l, flies!’ and quicker’n you could wink he’d spring straight up and snake a fly off’n the counter there and flop down on the floor ag’in as solid as a gob of mud, and fall to scratching the side of his head with his hind foot as indifferent 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 come 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 every-wheres 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 indifferent like, ’It might be a parrot, or it might be a canary, may be, but it ain’t—­it’s only just a frog.’

“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.’

“‘May be you don’t,’ Smiley says.  ’May be you understand frogs, and may be you don’t understand ’em; may be you’ve had experience, and may be you aint 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 aint 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.