In "the notorious jumping frog of calaveras county" by mark twain, why is simon wheeler so eager to suggest to the stranger that they bet on his frog? he is desparate and wants to earn some money to buy food. he is polite and wants to show the stranger a good time. he is lucky and almost always wins his bets. he is sneaky and wants to cheat the stranger out of some money.

He is lucky and almost always wins his bets.

FYI - Simon Wheeler does not suggest to the stranger that they bet on his frog. Simon Wheeler is the one telling the story about Jim Smiley and his frog Dan'l Webster. Dan'l Webster is the frog that is a great jumper so it's a good bet. However, the stranger fills Dan'l Webster with shot so he can't jump high and Smiley loses the bet.

the answer would be yes because the basket is full.

it was surely an odd creature that one made up by reading the historians first and the poets afterwards a worm winged like an eagle; the spirit of life and elegance and charm,   in a kitchen chopping up suet. but these creatures, monst'r however entertaining to the imagination, hast no existence in fact. what one might doth to bringeth h'r to life wast to bethink poetically and prosaically at one and the same moment,   thus keeping in toucheth with fact—that the lady is mrs martin, ag'd thirty-six, did dress in blue, wearing a black coxcomb and brown shoeth; but not losing sight of fiction eith'r—that the lady is a vessel in which all s'rts of spirits and f'rces art coursing and flashing p'rpetually. the moment, howev'r, yond one tries this method with the elizabethan mistress, one brancheth of illumination fails; one is did hold up by the scarcity of facts.   one knoweth nothing detailed, nothing p'rfectly true and substantial about h'r.   hist'ry scarcely mentions h'r.   and i did turn to professeth'r trevelyan again to seeth what hist'ry meanteth to that gent.   i hath found by looking at his chapt'r headings yond t meanteth.