One day that spring, Shot Gunderson burst into Paul’s shanty with his pant legs soaking wet. “Boss, we’ve got a problem! The rains are starting to come up from the ground instead of down from the sky.”
“They must be coming from China,” said Paul. “Order two thousand umbrellas. When they come, cut the handles off and replace them with snowshoe straps.”
Shot did as Paul said, and soon all the loggers were wearing umbrellas on their shoes to keep the China Rains from shooting up their pant legs.
Unfortunately, the China Rains caused a crop of ten-foot mosquitoes to attack the camp. The men tried using chicken wire for mosquito nets. Then they started barricading the doors and windows of the bunkhouse with two-ton boulders to keep them out. Finally they had to vacate the bunkhouse altogether when the mosquitoes tore off the roof.
“Get some giant bumblebees,” Paul ordered Shot. “They’ll get rid of the mosquitoes.”
Shot did as Paul said. The only problem was, the bees and the mosquitoes fell madly in love, and soon they were having children. Since the children had stingers on both ends, they caught the loggers both coming and going!
But Paul finally outsmarted the bee-squitoes.
“If there’s one thing a bee-squito loves more than stinging, it’s sweets,” Paul said. So he got them to swarm to a Hawaiian sugar ship docked in Lake Superior. And when the whole bunch got too fat to move, he shipped them to a circus in Florida.
Well, there’s stories and stories about Paul Bunyan, Babe the Blue Ox, and the Big Onion Lumber Company. For many years old loggers sat around potbellied stoves and told about the good old times with Paul. They told how Paul and Babe logged all the trees in Minnesota, then moved on to Washington, Oregon, and Alaska. And when last heard of, the two were somewhere off the Arctic Circle.
The old loggers are all gone now, but many of their stories still hang frozen in the cold forest air of the North Woods, waiting to be told. Come spring, when they start to thaw, some of them might just start telling themselves. It’s been known to happen.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The following list includes my primary sources, along with the many other books and articles that were helpful to me in these retellings.
DAVY CROCKETT
Blair, Walter. Tall Tale America. Coward-McCann, Inc., Publishers, 1944.
Clough, Ben C. The American Imagination at Work. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1947.
Coffin, Tristram Potter, and Cohen, Hennig, eds. The Parade of Heroes: Legendary Figures in American Lore. Anchor Press/Doubleday & Co., 1978.
Dorson, Richard M. America in Legend: Folklore from the Colonial Period to the Present. Pantheon Books, 1973.
Dorson, Richard M., ed. Davy Crockett: American Comic Legend. Rockland Editions, 1939.
Flanagan, John T., and Hudson, Arthur Palmer. The American Folklore Era. A. S. Barnes & Co., 1958.
Lofaro, Michael, ed. The Tall Tales of Davy Crockett, 1839–1841. University of Tennessee Press, 1987.
Malcolmson, Anne. Yankee Doodle’s Cousins. Houghton Mifflin Co., 1941.
Rourke, Constance. Davy Crockett. Harcourt, Brace & Company, 1934.
Sketches and Eccentricities of Colonel David Crockett of West Tennessee. J. and J. Harper, 1833.
SALLY ANN THUNDER ANN WHIRLWIND
Dorson, Richard M., ed. Davy Crockett: American Comic Legend. Rockland Editions, 1939.
Lofaro, Michael, ed. The Tall Tales of Davy Crockett, 1839–1841. University of Tennessee Press, 1987.
JOHNNY APPLESEED
Blair, Walter. Tall Tale America. Coward-McCann, Inc., Publishers, 1944.
Botkin, Benjamin A., ed. A Treasury of American Folklore. Crown Publishers, 1944.
Clough, Ben C. The American Imagination at Work. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1947.
Coffin, Tristram Potter, and Cohen, Hennig. Folklore: From the Working Folk of America. Anchor Press/Doubleday & Co., 1973.
Hatcher, Harlan. The Buckeye Country. G. P. Putnam & Sons, 1940.
Malcolmson, Anne. Yankee Doodle’s Cousins. Houghton Mifflin Co., 1941.
Price, Robert. “Johnny Appleseed: Man and Myth.” In The Life Treasury of American Folklore. Time Inc., 1961.
Sandburg, Carl. Abraham Lincoln. Harcourt, Brace & Company, 1926.
Wecter, Dixon. The Hero in America: A Chronicle of Hero-Worship. Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1942.
STORMALONG
Blair, Walter. Tall Tale America. Coward-McCann, Inc., Publishers, 1944.
Brown, Charles Edward. Old Stormalong Yarns. C. E. Brown, 1933.
Carmer, Carl. The Hurricane’s Children. Farrar & Rinehart, Inc., 1937.
Malcolmson, Anne. Yankee Doodle’s Cousins. Houghton Mifflin Co., 1941.
Shay, Frank, ed. American Sea Songs & Chanteys. Arno Press, 1948.
Shay, Frank. Here’s Audacity! American Legendary Heroes. Arno Press, 1930.
Stoutenburg, Adrien. American Tall Tales. Viking Press, 1966.
MOSE
Asbury, Herbert. The Gangs of New York. Garden City Pub., 1927.
Asbury, Herbert. Ye Olde Fire Laddies. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1930.
Blair, Walter. Tall Tale America. Coward-McCann, Inc., Publishers, 1944.
Butler, Benjamin. A Glance at New York. Samuel French, 1848.
Dayton, Abram C. Last Days of Knickerbocker Life. George W. Harlan, 1882.
Dorson, Richard M. America in Legend: Folklore from the Colonial Period to the Present. Pantheon Books, 1973.
Harlow, Alvin F. Old Bowery Days. D. Appleton & Co., 1931.
Jagendorf, M. Upstate Downstate. Vanguard Press, Inc., 1949.
Kernan, Frank. Reminiscences of the Old Fire Laddies. New York, 1885.
New York City Fire Museum.
FEBOLD FEBOLDSON
Beath, Paul R. “Febold Feboldson: Tall Tales from the Great Plains.” In The Life Treasury of American Folklore. Time Inc., 1961.
Blair, Walter. Tall Tale America. Coward-McCann, Inc., Publishers, 1944.
Botkin, Benjamin A., ed. A Treasury of American Folklore. Crown Publishers, 1944.
Coffin, Tristram Potter, and Cohen, Hennig, eds. The Parade of Heroes: Legendary Figures in American Lore. Anchor Press/Doubleday & Co., 1978.
Malcolmson, Anne. Yankee Doodle’s Cousins. Houghton Mifflin Co., 1941.
Southern Folklore Quarterly (September 1943).
PECOS BILL
Boatright, Mody C. “Tall Tales from Texas.” In The Life Treasury of American Folklore. Time Inc., 1961.
Botkin, Benjamin A., ed. A Treasury of American Folklore. Crown Publishers, 1944.
Bowman, James Cloyd. Pecos Bill. Albert Whitman & Co., 1938.
Coffin, Tristram Potter, and Cohen, Hennig, eds. The Parade of Heroes: Legendary Figures in American Lore. Anchor Press/Doubleday & Co., 1978.
Felton, Harold. Pecos Bill, Texas Cowpuncher. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1949.
Journal of American Folklore (January–June 1941).
Malcolmson, Anne. Yankee Doodle’s Cousins. Houghton Mifflin Co., 1941.
Shay, Frank. Here’s Audacity! American Legendary Heroes. Arno Press, 1930.
JOHN HENRY
Blair, Walter. Tall Tale America. Coward-McCann, Inc., Publishers, 1944.
Carmer, Carl. The Hurricane’s Children. Farrar & Rinehart, Inc., 1937.
Chappell, Louis W. John Henry: A Folk-Lore Study. Walter Biedermann, 1933.
Johnson, Guy. John Henry. University of North Carolina Press, 1929.
Malcolmson, Anne. Yankee Doodle’s Cousins. Houghton Mifflin Co., 1941.
Roark, Bradford. John Henry. Arno Press, 1931.
Shay, Frank. Here’s Audacity! American Legendary Heroes. Arno Press, 1930.
Stoutenburg, Adrien. American Tall Tales. Viking Press, 1966.
PAUL BUNYAN
Blair, Walter. Tall Tale America. Coward-McCann, Inc., Publishers, 1944.
Bowman, James Cloyd. The Adventures of Paul Bunyan. Century Co., 1927.
Carmer, Carl. The Hurricane’s Children.
Farrar & Rinehart, Inc., 1937.
Laughead, W. B. Paul Bunyan. Red River Lumber Co., 1916.
Malcolmson, Anne. Yankee Doodle’s Cousins. Houghton Mifflin Co., 1941.
McCormick, Dell J. Paul Bunyan Swings His Ax. Caxton Printers, Ltd., 1936.
Rounds, Glen. Ol’ Paul, the Mighty Logger. Holiday House, Inc., 1949.
Shay, Frank. Here’s Audacity! American Legendary Heroes. Arno Press, 1930.
Shephard, Esther. Paul Bunyan. Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1952.
Stevens, James. Paul Bunyan. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1925.
Stevens, James. The Saginaw Paul Bunyan. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1932.
Turney, Ida Virginia. Paul Bunyan Comes West. Houghton Mifflin Co., 1928.
The following is a list of sources that were helpful in writing the introductions to the tall tales.
Boorstin, Daniel J. The Americans: The National Experience. Vintage Books, 1965.
Brown, Carolyn S. The Tall Tale. University of Tennessee Press, 1987.
Dick, Everett. Conquering the Great American Desert. Nebraska State Historical Society, 1975.
Gosnell, Harper Allen. Before the Mast in the Clippers. Derrydale Press, 1937.
Hoffman, Daniel G. Paul Bunyan: Last of the Frontier Demigods. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1952.
Lynn, Kenneth S. Mark Twain & Southwestern Humor. Greenwood Press, Inc., 1960.
Nimrod, J. L. Johnny Appleseed. Chicago Historical Society, 1926. In Wecter, Dixon. The Hero in America: A Chronicle of Hero-Worship. Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1942.
Prospector, Cowhand, and Sodbuster. United States Department of Interior, 1967.
Rourke, Constance. American Humor. Harcourt, Brace & Company, 1931.
MARY POPE OSBORNE is the award-winning author of over sixty books for children. Her recent works include One World, Many Religions; New York’s Bravest; Tales from the Odyssey; Adaline Falling Star; and the Magic Tree House series, a New York Times children’s book number one bestselling series that has sold over 30 million copies and has been published in twenty-three countries. Ms. Osborne lives in northwestern Connecticut with her husband, Will.
MICHAEL McCURDY is a distinguished illustrator whose wood engravings and drawings have enhanced many books for both adults and children. From 1968 to 1985, he owned Penmaen Press Books, where he produced beautiful small-press first editions by leading American and European writers and poets. He wrote and illustrated An Algonquian Year: The Year According to the Full Moon and edited and illustrated Escape from Slavery: The Boyhood of Frederick Douglass in His Own Words. His most recent book illustrations appear in Tales of Terror by Edgar Allan Poe. He lives with his wife, Deborah, in Massachusetts.
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