The Narrator
The narrator is a visitor to Angel’s Camp who has called upon Simon Wheeler to ask after a friend of a friend from the Eastern United States. It is implied that he is also from the east. He becomes trapped as an unwilling audience to Wheeler’s stories. He uses an educated man’s vocabulary and is excessively polite, with a wry, formal, somewhat condescending tone. He is good-natured about the episode, even as he makes his escape.
The Narrator's Friend
A friend of the narrator’s who wrote to him from the East. It is implied that they are both educated, literate men.
Leonidas W. Smiley
A friend of a friend of the narrator, a “cherished companion of his boyhood.” The narrator suspects that Leonidas Smiley is a fiction that his friend made up to remind Wheeler of Jim Smiley, and so subject the narrator to Wheeler’s tall tales as a prank.
Simon Wheeler
A garrulous, good-natured man found napping by the stove in the mining town of Angel’s camp, California. The narrator describes him as old, fat, and bald. He relates the story of Jim Smiley’s jumping frog to the narrator, blockading him aggressively in a corner. Wheeler speaks in a folksy vernacular slang dialect, telling colorful tall tales that likely stretch the truth.
Jim Smiley
The subject of Simon Wheeler’s tall tales. He lived in Angel’s Camp, Calaveras County, California in either 1849 or 1850. Smiley was a gambler who would bet on anything. He was known for being lucky and winning against the odds. He was also enterprising and optimistic, training unlikely animals to win bets for him. They appeared to be losers, or unremarkable, but have the gumption to win in the end. While Smiley was a gambler, he wasn’t a cheat. He feigned casual indifference to fool others into betting with him, and then took advantage of their tendency to underestimate creatures based upon appearances. Smiley is tricked by the stranger in the end, who cheats to defeat him.
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson is Jim Smiley’s dog, a “bull pup.” He didn’t look like he was worth much, but was a surprisingly tenacious fighter who won fights for Smiley. Andrew Jackson had a trick during a fight of catching the other dog’s back legs in his mouth and holding on. This worked until he fought a dog that didn’t have back legs. When Andrew Jackson didn’t know what to do, he looked heartbrokenly at Smiley and died. Wheeler comments that the dog probably had some “genius” and “talent” in him, since he managed to come out on top despite lack of opportunities. He has the name of the seventh American president: Andrew Jackson, who was known as a strong-willed populist. Before he became president, he was a lawyer who practiced on the frontier and a gambler.
The Fifteen-Minute Nag
Jim Smiley’s horse. She was slow and sickly. In spite of this, she won races for Smiley. She would start out slow, but would get energized in the last leg of the race and narrowly win.
Dan’l Webster
The Celebrated Frog of Calaveras County. According to Wheeler’s story, Jim Smiley taught Dan’l Webster to turn somersaults in the air and catch flies on command. Dan’l Webster’s specialty was to outjump any other frog around. Despite his many gifts, he was "modest and straight-forward.” Jim Smiley kept Dan’l Webster in a box and would occasionally fetch him for a bet. Dan’l Webster is the undefeated jumping champion until the day a stranger fills him with quail shot to weigh him down. When turned upside down, he burps out the shot, revealing the stranger's plot. He shares a name with the Secretary of State Daniel Webster, who was known as a fantastic orator and advocate for American nationalism.
The Stranger
A man passing through Angel’s Camp in Calaveras County. He bets against Dan’l Webster in a frog jumping contest, fills him with quail shot when Jim Smiley isn’t looking, and so cheats Smiley out of forty dollars. He is unimpressed with Dan’l Webster, insisting twice that he “don't see no p'ints about that frog that's any better'n any other frog." He doesn’t buy Smiley’s enterprising optimism, preys on his trusting nature, and swindles him with a simple trick. Because he isn’t a local, he is able to escape with Smiley’s money.
