What Mark Twain short story features a famous gambling frog?

The Mark Twain short story featuring a famous gambling frog is “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.” It centers on Jim Smiley, a compulsive bettor who trains a frog named Dan’l Webster for a jumping contest.

Twain first published the tale in 1865, originally under the title “Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog.” A revised version, with its now-famous title, appeared later that year in The Californian. The story became Twain’s first major literary success and helped establish his national reputation.

The plot’s famous trick involves a stranger secretly feeding buckshot to Dan’l Webster while Smiley is away catching a second frog. Dan’l becomes too heavy to jump, allowing the stranger to win the wager. Readers sometimes confuse the story with Twain’s later novels or with Lukas Foss’s 1950 comic opera, which was based on it.