The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

ON THE OTHER END OF THE LINE

About the story.

A request for information leaves a visitor listening to Simon Wheeler, a man with a wonderfully persistent manner of telling a story. Wheeler’s subject is a local gambler whose interest in betting extends to some decidedly unlikely competitors.

Mark Twain builds the entertainment from a storyteller’s confidence and his listener’s predicament. The famous frog belongs to a wider world in which almost anything can become a contest if somebody is willing to wager on it.