His fountain
pen was made by running a hose from a barrel of ink and with it he could
"daub out a walk" quicker than the recipient of the pay-off could tie
the knot in his tussick rope.
One winter Johnny left off crossing the "t's" and dotting the "i's" and
saved nine barrels of ink. The lumberjacks accused him of using a split
pencil to charge up the tobacco and socks they bought at the wanagan but
this was just bunkshanty talk (is this the origin of the classic term
"the bunk"?) for Johnny never cheated anyone.
Have you ever encountered the Mosquito of the North Country? You thought
they were pretty well developed animals with keen appetites, didn't you?
Then you can appreciate what Paul Bunyan was up against when he was
surrounded by the vast swarms of the giant ancestors of the present race
of mosquitoes, getting their first taste of human victims. The present
mosquito is but a degenerate remnant of the species. Now they rarely
weigh more than a pound or measure more than fourteen or fifteen inches
from tip to tip.
Paul had to keep his men and oxen in the camps with doors and windows
barred.
Pages:
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47