Jim Smiley was a man who would bet upon anything that could be bet upon. If you wanted to bet the side he was on, he would bet on the other. And he was also unusually lucky.
One day he caught a frog and trained it to jump for three months. One day he met a man and bet him 40 dollars that his frog could outjump any in Calaveras county. When Smily went off to find the man a frog, his was stuffed full of quail shot.
When he got back and the race began, his frog couldn't move, and the man went off with the money. Smiley found how heavy the frog was, and dumped it out, but never was able to catch the man.