The Story of Paul Bunyan
Paul Bunyan was the biggest baby ever born to the world! He was too big to fit
inside the house, so his father built him a cradle to put in the water. As Baby Paul
slept in the water cradle, his father followed alongside it in a boat so he could
keep an eye on him. When Baby Paul began to snore, his father thought the
noise was coming from an approaching thunderstorm!
When Paul Bunyan grew up, he decided to become a lumberjack, because he
could fell an entire forest with one swing of his axe. The other lumberjacks were
glad for his help, since he made their work so much easier. They did have to feed
him an awful lot, though. Paul Bunyan loved to eat, especially pancakes. One
day, a woman came into the logging camp kitchen and asked the cook, "Why are
those logs over there piled up to the ceiling?"
"Those aren't logs," the cook replied. "Those are sausages for Paul Bunyan."
One day, during a heavy snowstorm, Paul Bunyan was out walking and bumped
into a mountain. When he looked down, he saw two blue ears sticking out of the
snow. He yanked on the ears and pulled up a baby blue ox. He decided to keep
the ox and took it home with him. The next day, the snow had melted and Paul
Bunyan saw that the baby ox had eaten three entire fields of hay! This was going
to be one big ox, for sure. Paul Bunyan called the ox "Babe" and the two of them
became fast friends.
Well, Babe got so big that when he and Paul Bunyan walked around Minnesota,
they formed ten thousand lakes with their footprints. Minnesota has been known
ever since as the 'Land of Ten Thousand Lakes.