What inference can the reader make about Simon Wheeler?

A) Simon Wheeler is a lonely man who loves to tell stories. B) Simon Wheeler is friends with the Rev. Leonidas W. Smily. C) Simon Wheeler owns the tavern that the speaker has entered. D) Simon Wheeler is one of the heroes in the story he is about to tell.

The inference that the reader can make about Simon Wheeler is that B) Simon Wheeler is friends with the Rev. Leonidas W. Smiley.

Explanation:

From The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County by Mark Twain, the reader can make the inference that Simon Wheeler is friends with the Rev. Leonidas W. Smilly because the narrator has a friend living in the East and he writes his friend to look for a man named Simon Wheeler and find out how the narrator's friend Leonidas Smiley is doing.

It turns out that it was a practical joke because there is no such person as Leonidas Smiley but he chose the name "Smiley" so that he would recall "good natured" Jim Smiley and launch into a lengthy narration about him which he eventually does.