still he was lucky, uncommon lucky; he most always came out winner. He was always ready and laying for a chance. There couldn't be no solit'ry thing mentioned but that feller'd offer to bet on it and take any side you please, as I was just telling you. If there was a horse-race you'd find him flush or you'd find him busted at the end of it. If there was a dog-fight, he'd bet on it; if there was a cat-fight, he'd bet on it; if there was a chicken-fight, he'd bet on it. Why, if there was two birds setting on a fence, he would bet you which one would fly first. Or if there was a camp-meeting, he would be there reg'lar to bet on Parson Walker, which he judged to be the best exhorter about here, and so he was, too, and a good man. If he even see a straddle-bug start to go anywheres he would bet you how long it would take him to get to-to wherever he was going to; and if you took him up he would follow that straddle-bug to Mexico but what he would find out where he was bound for and how long he was on the road. Lots of the boys here has seen that Smiley, and can tell you about him. Why, it never made no difference to him, he'd bet any thing -the dangdest feller. Parson Walker's wife laid very sick once for a good while, and it seemed as if they warn't going to save her; but one morning he come in and Smiley up and asked him how she was, and he said she was consid❜able better-thank the Lord for his inf'nit mercy!—and coming on so smart that, with the blessing of Providence, she'd get well yet; and Smiley, before he thought, says, 'Well, I'll resk two-and-a-half she don't, any way.'

"Well, this yer Smiley had rat-terriers, and chicken-cocks, and tom-cats, and all them kind of things till you couldn't rest, and you couldn't fetch nothing for him to bet on but he'd match you. He ketched a frog one day and took him home, and said he cal'lated to educate him; and so he never done nothing for three months but set in his back-yard and learn that frog to jump. And you bet you he did learn him, too. He'd give him a little punch behind, and the next minute you'd see that frog whirling in the air like a doughnut-see him turn one summerset, or may be a couple, if he got a good start, and come down flat-footed and all right, like a cat. He got him up so in the matter of ketching flies, 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."

666

'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,

666

'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.

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

side of Dan'l, with his forepaws just even with Dan'l, 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 wouldn'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; but 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 throwed off for. I wonder if there aint 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 the feller, but he never ketched him."

INDEX.

An Index to the American Authors and Writings and the Principal American
Periodicals mentioned in this Volume.

American Note-Books, 95, 114, 116, 119, Black Fox of Salmon River, The, 157.

Atlantic Monthly, The, 136, 143, 150, 151, Bridal of Pennacook, The, 157, 159.

Building of the Ship, The, 127.
Bundle of Letters, A, 206.
Burnett, Mrs. F. H., 205.
Bushnell, Horace, 99.
Busy-Body, The, 38, 53, 74.
Butler, W. A., 170.
Byrd, Wm., 16, 17.

Cable, G. W., 203.
Calhoun, J. C., 46, 86.

Cambridge Thirty Years Ago, 123.
Cape Cod, 111.

Capture of Fugitive Slaves, 140.
Cary, Alice, 178.

Cary, Phoebe, 173.

Cask of Amontillado, The, 166.

Cassandra Southwick, 159.
Cathedral, The, 144.

Cecil Dreeme, 185.

Century Magazine, The, 150, 183, 197.

Chambered Nautilus, The, 135.

Chance Acquaintance, A, 208.

Channing, W. E., 73, 90-92, 93, 97-100, 106. Deserted Road, The, 173.

Channing, W. E., Jr., 106, 110, 119.

Channing, W. H., 106.

Chapel of the Hermits, The, 158.

Conquest of Peru, 145.

Conspiracy of Pontiac, The, 147.

Constitution and the Union, The, 87.

Dial, The, 93, 98, 105, 106.

Dialogue Between Franklin and the Gout,

Edwards, Jonathan, 35-37, 58, 91, 97, 99.
Eggleston, Edward, 202.

Constitution of the United States, The, 45, Elevator, The, 63, 210.

85.

Contentment, 85.

Contrast, The, 63.

Conversations on the Gospels, 104.

Conversations on Some of the Old Poets,

143.

Cooke, J. E., 169.

Eliot, John, 21, 23.

Elsie Venner, 137.
Emerson, Charles, 106.

Emerson, R. W., 88, 93, 96-113, 119, 122, 123,
128, 129, 138, 151, 154, 160, 179.
Endicott's Red Cross, 25, 118.
English Note-Books, 119.

Cooper, J. F., 61, 71, 73, 81-84, 89, 107, 130, English Traits, 103, 109.

147, 168, 204.

Coral Grove, The, 175.

Cotton, John, 22, 23, 28, 29.

Count Frontenac and New France, 147.
Courtin', The, 141, 188.

Courtship of Miles Standish, The, 26.
Cow Chase, The, 59.

Ephemeræ, 176.

Epilogue to Cato, 60.
Eternal Goodness, 158.
Ethan Brand, 117.
Europeans, The, 206, 207.
Evangeline, 129, 130.
Evening Wind, The, 153.