Our narrator is sent on an errand to visit an old man, Simon Wheeler by a friend to find an old acquaintance of his. This is clearly a joke, because once our narrator gets there and asks about the acquaintance, Wheeler immediately begins to tell a long, boring, droll story about Jim Smiley. Jim Smiley is addicted to gambling. He bets on anything from the death of Parson Walker's wife to fights between his bulldog pup, Andrew Jackson, and other dogs. One day, a stranger to the town agrees to bet on a frog jumping higher than Jim's frog, Dan'l Webster – is his bet wise? Mark Twain was a master of the short story form and his writing is a perfect suit for being read aloud.