Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1870-08-23
Jim Smiley's Jamping Frog.

-. - J.
He cotched 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 sit in his back yard and learn the frog how
to jump And you bet he did learn him, too.
He'd give him a little punch behind, and the
next minute you'd d see that frog whirling in the
air like doughnut-see him turn summer
set, and maybe couple, If be got good start,
and come down fat-footed and all right, like a
cat He got him up so in the matter of catch
ing flies, and kept him in practice so constant,
that he nail fly every time, as far as he
could see him.
Smiley said that all the frog wanted was ed
ucation, and he could do almost anything and
| believe him. Why I've seen him set Daniel
Webster down here on the floor Daniel Web
ster was the name Of the frog-and sing out
Flies, Dan'l, fies," and quick rn you could
wink he'd spring up and shake fly off n the
counter there and flop down on the floor again
as solid as COB of mud and fall to scratching
the side of his head with his hind foot as in-
different as if he hadn't no idee he'd done any
more n any frog might do. You never seed a
frog so modest and straightfor' ard as he was,
square jumping on dead level, he could get
over more ground at one straddle than any an
imal Of his breed you ever see. Jumping on
dead level was his strong suit, you under
stand, and when it came to that, Smiley would
ante up money on him as long as he had a red.
Smiley was monstrous proud of his frog, and
we'll he might be, for fellers that had travelled
and bin everywhere. all said that he laid over
every frog that they ever seed.
Well, Smiley kept the beast In little lattice
box, and he used to fetch it down town some
times, and lay for bet Once feller-stran-
ger in camp, he was-came across him with
his box, and says:
What might it be you We got in the box p
And Smiley, sorter Indifferent like, says:
1T might be parrot, or it might be ca
nary, mayb be; but it amt; it's only frog.
And the feller took it and looked at it care
full, and turned it this way and that, and says
III 'm-so tbs. Well, what's he good for
well" Smiley says, easy and careless,
hes good enough for one thing, | should
judge-he can outjunp any frog in Calveras
County"
The fellow took the box again, and took
another long and particular look, and gives it
back to Smiley, and says, very deliberate:
well, l don't see no points about that frog
that S any better than any other frog
maybe you DON'T Smiley said. ''Maybe
you understand frogs and maybe you don t un-
derstand EN-; maybe you are only an amateur,
as it were. Anyways I've got my opinion,
and L Il risk forty dollars that he can outjump
any frog in Calveras County,
Aud the feller studied minute or two, and
then says, kinder sad like, well, I'm only q
stranger here, and amt got frog, but if ]
had, l bet you
And then Smiley says: ''That's all right
That's all right. If you'll hold my box amin
ute, I'll go and get freq and SO the fellel
took the frog and put up his forty dollars alons
with Smiley's. and set down to wait
So he sat there good while, thinking tt
hisself, and TUX the frog OUT and pried oper
his mouth, and took teaspoon and filled hin
full of quail shot filled him pretty near up tt
the chin, and set him on the hoor Smiley hi
went out to the swamp and stopped around il
the mud for long time, and finally he ketchet
frog and fetched him in, and give him to th,
feller, and says:
snow. if you are ready, set him alongside O
Dan'l, with his forepaughs just even with Dan
iel's, and I'll give you the word" Then he
says: One, two, three-jump!" and hin
and the feller touched up the frogs from be-
hind, and the frog jumped off lively, but Dan
gave heave, histed up his shoulder-so-like
Frenchman, but it wasn't any use be wal
planted as solid as an anvil, and he couldn'
no more stir than if he was anchored out
Smiley was good-deal surprised, and he was
disguised, too, but he didn't have no idea
what the matter was, Of course.
Tbe teller took the money anel started away
and when he was going out OF the door he sor.
| ter jerked his thumb over his shouder-this
way, at Dan'l, and says again very deliberate