“I noticed that he was fat and bald-headed, and had an expression of winning gentleness and simplicity upon his tranquil countenance.”
This is a satire of the voice of the Eastern gentleman common in southwestern frame stories. Twain is making fun of the narrator’s ostentatious manner, using the word “countenance” for example, to mean face. The sentence also exaggerates the stereotypes of a simple country yokel in its description of Wheeler.
“There was a feller here once by the name of Jim Smiley, in the winter of '49 or may be it was the spring of '50 I don't recollect exactly, somehow, though what makes me think it was one or the other is because I remember the big flume wasn't finished when he first came to the camp…”
The speech follows an improvised stream of consciousness, as Wheeler tries to remember what year his story is set based upon a major event in the mining town. Invoking ‘49 places it in history for the reader: this is during the famous 1849 California Gold Rush.
“Parson Walker's wife laid very sick once, for a good while, and it seemed as if they warn's going to save her; but one morning he come in, and Smiley asked how she was, and he said she was considerable better thank the Lord for his inftnit mercy and coming on so smart that, with the blessing of Providence, she'd get well yet; and Smiley, before he thought, says, ‘Well, I'll risk two-and-a-half that she don't, any way.’”
This is a clue to Smiley’s ethics. He bets outside of normal convention, morality, and politeness: that is, against the survival of the local clergyman’s wife.
“He ketched a frog one day, and took him home, and said he cal'klated to edercate him; and so he never done nothing for three months but set in his back yard and learn that frog to jump.”
The statement that Smiley spends three months teaching a frog to jump is absurdly silly (of course, a frog naturally knows how to jump). It places this story in the realm of a tall tale.
“And Smiley says, sorter indifferent like, ‘It might be a parrot, or it might be a canary, may be, but it an't it's only just a frog.’”
When Smiley feigns indifference, he is engaging in a type of deception. It’s an example of dramatic irony because the reader knows that it is anything but “just a frog” to Smiley. He has spent months “educating” him.
