… I noticed that he was fat and bald-headed, and had an expression of winning gentleness and simplicity upon his tranquil countenance.

This quote comes during the exposition when the narrator first encounters Simon Wheeler. The narrator’s description reveals Wheeler to be a humble person who is content with his humble surroundings. He is perfectly happy to live in a place like Angel’s Camp, run-down as it may be, because it is the place he calls home. This is significant because his love for his home and the people who live there motivate his storytelling and help drive the plot.

[H]e never changed his voice from the gentle-flowing key to which he tuned the initial sentence … all through the interminable narrative there ran a vein of impressive earnestness and sincerity, which showed me plainly that … he regarded it as a really important matter, and admired its two heroes as men of transcendent genius in finesse.

This quote comes just prior to the tales about Jim Smiley, when the point of view of the short story switches to Wheeler. The description here shows that Wheeler is a practiced storyteller who has told these particular tales many times over. It also hints at Wheeler’s motivation. Wheeler tells these stories over and over, to anyone who will listen, because he earnestly believes in the power of folktales to impart valuable lessons to the listener.