Life is too short for a long story. Why not sit down and enjoy a short tale?The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County is an 1865 short story by Mark Twain, his first great success as a writer, bringing him national attention.In it, the narrator retells a story he heard from a bartender, Simon Wheeler, at the Angels Hotel in Angels Camp, California, about the gambler Jim Smiley. Twain describes him: "If he even seen a straddle bug start to go anywheres, he would bet you how long it would take him to get to wherever he going to, and if you took him up, he would foller that straddle bug to Mexico but what he would find out where he was bound for and how long he was on the road."时间太少，小说太长，不如读一篇短故事。

一个痴迷于赌注的人有一只全县驰名的跳蛙，可是有一天这只跳蛙离奇地失败了，这背后有着怎样让人啼笑皆非的缘由？