Mark Twain Reading Quizzes
“The Invalid’s Story”
1. How does the narrator say he lost his health?
He says he lost his health taking care of a box of guns on a 200-mile railway journey one
winter’s night.
2. What mix-up was made at the train station?
Someone else got the coffin he was supposed to have, and gave him a box of guns.
3. What did the stranger set on one end of the narrator’s box?
Limburger cheese.
4. What was causing the foul smell?
The cheese.
5. What did the narrator think was the source of the smell?
His friend’s corpse.
6. Thompson was referring to the narrator’s friend using various titles? What sort of pattern
was there to the titles, in relation to the scent?
Thompson gave the narrator’s friend military titles. The worse the smell became, the higher the
rank of the title.
7. What ruined the narrator’s health?
It’s not completely clear. It may have been the cold weather, and he may have caught Typhoid
fever. But he states that “imagination has done its work.” So the reader is led to believe that
perhaps he wasn’t physically sick at all – or perhaps his imagination CAUSED his sickness
(placebo effect).
“Dick Baker’s Cat”
1. Briefly summarize the story.
You need to re-read the story if you can’t do this 
2. What made the story hard to understand?
The extensive use of dialect could make the story difficult to understand. Some of you also
stated that you found it hard to follow because the cat was so much like a person, and it was
difficult to keep the details straight as a result. You may also have difficulty with the way the
narrator talks – big words and overly complex sentences.
3. How does Tom Quartz feel about quartz mining at the end of the story?
He is prejudiced against it. He does not like it. (Remember, Tom Quartz it the cat. Dick Baker is
the guy talking about the cat.)
4. Describe Tom Quartz.
Again, remember that Tom Quartz is the cat. He was sagacious (wise). He was a large gray Tom
cat. He had more hard, natural sense than any man in the mining camp. He was dignified. He
loved mining and was he was really good at picking out a spot to mine.
“The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”
1. Who is Leonidas Smiley?
Leonidas is the man the narrator was supposed to ask about. His friend wrote him and told him
to ask Simon Wheeler about Rev. Leonidas Smiley. The narrator suspects that Leonidas never
existed at all, and that his friend made him up so that the narrator would have to sit and listen
to all the stories about Jim Smiley.
2. Who is Jim Smiley?
Jim Smiley is the man that Simon Wheeler tells all the stories about. He is the man who likes to
bet. He bets on anything. In the story, he has a dog named Andrew Jackson and a frog named
Daniel Webster.
3. What was interesting about Jim Smiley?
He will bet on anything and he is lucky.
4. Who is Simon Wheeler?
Simon Wheeler is the guy who tells all the stories about Jim Smiley.
5. Where does the story take place?
Angel’s Mining Camp / Calaveras County (which is in California)
6. How did Andrew Jackson lose the fight?
His fighting method was to grab the other dog’s hind legs and not let go. The other dog in one
particular fight had no hind legs, so Andrew Jackson’s method did not work.
7. What did Andrew Jackson do when he lost the fight?
He lay down and died.
8. Who is Daniel Webster?
Daniel Webster is Jim Smiley’s frog. Jim Smiley trains him to jump high.
9. How did Daniel Webster lose the jumping contest?
The other guy filled his mouth with quail shot. He was heavy and couldn’t jump high.
10. How does the narrator get away from Simon Wheeler?
Simon gets called away. When he comes back and starts another story, the narrator says, “Oh!
Hang Smiley and his afflicted cow!” He basically just leaves even though Simon Wheeler is
trying to tell him another story.