Folklore Pamphlets, 1921-1945

              and trees and piled them up on its shores. This he set afire and boiled the lake. Paul's cooks threw in salt, pepper and bags of onions. When the water cooled it was the best of pea soup and with a fine ox-tail flavor. It was hauled to the cook shanty in casks and the loggers had pea soup all that winter.
THE ROUND RIVER DRIVE-One day in the spring, when the water in the Big Auger River was high, Paul's crews rolled into the stream the logs cut on the Pyramid Forty. Soon the men were away on the biggest drive in logging history. They drove for several weeks expecting to arrive at a sawmill town and dispose of their logs. It was not until they had driven past their camp several times in the course of several months that the drive foreman became suspicious and went ashore. He found the site of the old camp. He realized that they were in a fix. They were on a river that was round and had no outlet. Here the cook. Sourdough Sam, saved the situation. He placed a large quantity of sourdough in the water. This soon raised the log drive up on the bank. Babe, the Blue Ox, was harnessed to large numbers of the logs at a time. He dragged them to another river and the difficulty was overcome.
THE BUCKSKIN HARNESS-One day, Forty Jones, Paul's straw boss, saw some deer tracks on the banks of the Sawdust River. He watched for the animals. When they came to drink he removed the keylog from a pile of logs forty feet high. These rolled down on the deer and killed them. From the skins of these deer he made a harness for Babe,  the Blue Ox.
Pink-eye Martin was one day hauling logs with Babe for camp firewood. When he started from the river bank with his load it began to rain. The harness became wet and began to stretch. When he reached the camp Babe was at his side, but the sleigh and the load were still down near the river. He tied Babe to a tree and went into the cook shanty to help with the crew's dinner. While he was there the sun came out very hot. It soon dried the harness, which shrunk, and dragged the firewood load to camp.
ELMER, THE REVERSIBLE DOG-Paul had a smart little dog named Elmer. He used him in his hunting. One night Paul thought he heard a rat in a corner of the bunkhouse. Reaching beneath his bunk for his double-bit axe he threw it in the direction of the noise. He heard a yelp. Going to the corner he found that he had cut Elmer in two. He was very fond of this poor dog. He put the two parts together and wrapped and tied a gunnysack about his middle. This was done in the dark. He got his hind end placed the wrong way. The rear legs were up instead of down. With good nursing Elmer got well. He became the best hunting dog in the North Woods. He could outrun any deer. He would run on one pair of legs until they were tired. Then he would turn over and use the other pair. Elmer hunted with his master for many years.