Weekly New Oregon plain dealer. (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1866-1867, 1866-11-02
Sim Syliley's Julnpln' Frog.

=,
eats, and all them kind of things,
ill YOU couldn't fetch nothing for
him to bet on but he'd match you.
lie ketched frog one day and took
lin home, and said he'd cal lated
20 educate him, and so he never
done nuthing for three months lut
set in his back yard and learn t"a'
troc t. jump. And you can bet he
did learn him, too. He'd give linn
, little touch behind, and the mex:
minute you'd see the froc whirAnS
in the air like a doughuut-SeC "lm
turn one summerset, o. maybe
couple if he Got a coed start, and
~cme down nat-fottel and all
right, like cat. He got him up
90 in the manner Of ketchin- flies,
and kept him in practice so con
slant, that he'd nail fly every
time IS far as he could see him
Smiley said all frog wanted was
education, and he could DO most
anything, and I believe him.
Why, I've seen him SET Dnn1
Webster down here on this floor
Dan'l Webster was the name Of the
trog-and sing out flies, Dan /
f!ics,' and quicker'n YOU could wink
he'd spring straight up and snake
Az of the counter there, and TO-
down OF the floor again as solid as
y COB of mud, and fall to scratching
the side of his head with his hind
foot as Indifferent as ifhe hand't TO
idea he'd done any more than frog
might do. You never see fog SO
modest and straightforward as he
vas. And when it comes to fair
and square jumping on dead level,
be could get over more sroun! than
any of his breed you ever see.
Jumping on dead level was his
strong hold, you understand, and
when it come to that Smiley would
ante up money on him as long as he
had red. Smiley was monstrous
proud of his frog, and well he
might be, for fellers that had tray
eled, and been everywhere, said he
laid over any frog that ever they
see.
"Well, Smiley kept the beast-in
a little lattice box, and he used to
fetch him down town sometimes and
lay for bet. One day Teller
q stranger in the camp he was
come across him with his box, and
says:
What might it be that you've
got in the box?"
And Smiley says, sorter indih'er-
ent like, ''it might be parrot, or
it might be canary, may be but
it ain't-it's only just a frog
And the Teller took it and looked
at it carefully, and turned it round
this way and that, and says, "H'm
so tbs. Well what's be good
for?'
WELL" Smiley says, easy and
careless, "he's good enough for
one thing I should judge-he can
out jump any frog in Calavera s
county"
The Teller took the box again and
took another long, particular look,
and gave it back to Smiley, and
says very deliberately. "Well, l
don't see no points about that frog
that's any better than any other
frog"
May be you DON'T suily says.
May be you understand frogs and
may be you don't understand 'em;
may be you've had experienc and
may be you amt, only a ameturc,
as it were. Anyways. I've got my
opinion, and I'll risk forty dollars
that he can out-jump any frog in
Calaveras county,
And the Teller studied a minute,
and then says, kinder sad like:
= "Well, I'm only a stranger, and
ain got no frog; but if 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 minute, I'll 60 and
get you frog.
And so the Teller took the box
and put his forty dollars along with
Smiley's and set down to wait.
So he sat there a good while
thinking and thinking to himself,
and then he got the frog out and
pried his mouth open and took