“’Now, if you’re ready, set him alongside of Dan’l, with his forepaws 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, ’I 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 wanted.] And turning to me as he moved away, he said:  “Just set where you are, stranger, and rest easy—­I ain’t going to be gone a second.”

But, by your leave, I did not think that a continuation of the history of the enterprising vagabond Jim Smiley would be likely to afford me much information concerning the Rev. Leonidas W. Smiley, and so I started away.

At the door I met the sociable Wheeler returning, and he button-holed me and re-commenced: 

“Well, thish-yer Smiley had a yeller one-eyed cow that didn’t have no tail, only just a short stump like a bannanner, and—­”

However, lacking both time and inclination, I did not wait to hear about the afflicted cow, but took my leave.

THE LADY OR THE TIGER

BY

FRANK R. STOCKTON

This is an illustration of the symmetrical plot.  It challenges the constructive imagination of the reader to search the story for the evidence that will lead to a logical conclusion.

THE LADY OR THE TIGER

[Footnote:  From “The Lady or the Tiger?” by Frank R. Stockton.  Copyright, 1886, by Charles Scribner’s Sons.  Copyright, 1914, by Marie Louise and Frances A. Stockton.]