Character Analysis
Though we know very little about the stranger, we do know that he isn’t impressed by Dan’l Webster and keeps insisting that he looks like an ordinary frog to him. We also know that he really wants that forty bucks, so he cheats by filling Dan’l with quail shot so the frog can't jump. (When this story was written, forty bucks was a lot of money.) He also insists on rubbing it in that Dan’l isn’t any better than other frogs, even though he knows it hasn’t been a fair match. Lastly, we know that the stranger is that he isn’t a local. Otherwise, Smiley would probably have known him, and he also wouldn’t be able to get away from the camp after having cheated Smiley. We have to assume he was just passing through the camp, perhaps hoping he could turn a quick buck.
The Stranger Timeline