-Canadian Bunyon became naturalized
into the Yankee Bunyan and all contact with reality was lost. Bunyan, his
old Blue Ox, Babe, and their exploits grew to fantastic extremes. Size was
never measured in terms of feet or pounds and so it is difficult for us to
give exact dimensions, but it was agreed that the blue ox, Babe, measured
forty-two axehandles and a plug of tobacco between the eyes, while Bunyan
himself once had the misfortune to lose two large logging engines in his
mackinaw pocket and did not find them for a month.

Yet these stories were never told lightly, for a true lumberjack will
never, by word, look or tone, give any suggestion that these stories are
not the exact truth. In fact elaborate precautions are taken to establish
their veracity and citation of proof is nearly universal. Sometimes the
evidence cited is the word of one from whom the story was heard, for few
of the tales are told as the personal experience of the story teller. The
story came direct from one of Bunyan's loggers, from a pioneer, the Bull
Cook, or some one else equally well informed and reliable. Sometimes the
proof is to be found in the continued existence of something connected
with the story. Thus the lack of stumps in North Dakota is cited as proof
of the fact that Bunyan drove all the stumps into the ground when he
logged off that country, while the story that the Mississippi River was
started when one of Bunyan's water tanks broke is proven by the fact that
the river is still running.

According to the best authenticated stories, Paul was born in Maine some
time before the Revolutionary War, so far back that a century or so one
way or the other made little difference. He had been a lusty infant and a
good-sizeable boy, but he did not reach his full growth until he went to
Michigan. It was then that he really began his life work of logging off
the regions south and west of the Great Lakes. He gained experience and
some reputation in his logging operations on the Big Onion, the Big Auger,
the Little Gimblet and the Big Tadpole Rivers, but it was the logging of
the Dakotas that really made his reputation. Legend has played around this
event even more than is usual with Bunyan exploits. This was really done
to provide room for the Swedes who were coming to the United States. There
were many lesser things which Bunyan did, most of which are mentioned only
incidentally, such as the logging of Missouri, the accident when he
dragged h