Which quote from "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" supports the idea that Mark Twain is portraying the narrator as a fool?

Question

Simon Wheeler backed me into a corner and blockaded me there with his chair, and then sat me down and reeled off the monotonous narrative which follows this paragraph.

I found Simon Wheeler dozing comfortably by the bar-room stove of the old, dilapidated tavern in the ancient mining camp of Angel's. . . .

In compliance with the request of a friend of mine, who wrote me from the East, I called on good-natured, garrulous old Simon Wheeler, and inquired after my friend's friend, Leonidas W. Smiley, as requested to do, and I hereunto append the result.

I did not think that a continuation of the history of the enterprising vagabond Jim Smiley would be likely to afford me much information concerning the Rev. Leonidas W. Smiley, and so I started away.

Answer 1

The quote that best supports the idea that Mark Twain is portraying the narrator as a fool is:

"I did not think that a continuation of the history of the enterprising vagabond Jim Smiley would be likely to afford me much information concerning the Rev. Leonidas W. Smiley, and so I started away."

In this quote, the narrator shows a lack of insight and understanding about Simon Wheeler's story. The fact that he approached Wheeler looking for information about a supposedly nonexistent person (Leonidas W. Smiley) suggests that he is gullible or foolish for taking the request seriously in the first place. His eventual realization that the story he is hearing has nothing to do with his inquiry underscores his foolishness in engaging with the situation.