When the task was finally done, the Ox was nearly fagged out, a condition that he had never known before, and that big chain had been pulled on so hard that it was pulled out into a solid steel bar. The road was straightened out, however, which was the thing Paul wanted, and he considered the time and energy expended as well worthwhile, since the nuisance had been transformed into something useful. He found, though, that since all the kinks and twists had been pulled out, there was now a whole lot more of the road than was needed, but — never being a person who could stand to waste anything which might be useful — he rolled up all the extra length and laid it down in a place where there had never been a road before but where one might come in handy some time.

Nor was the straightening of crooked roads the only useful work which the Great Blue Ox did. It was also his task to skid or drag the logs from the stumps to the rollways by the streams, where they were stored for the drives. Babe was always obedient, and a tireless and patient worker. It is said that the timber of nineteen states, except a few scant sections here and there which Paul Bunyan did not touch, was skidded from the stumps by the all-powerful Great Blue Ox. He was docile and willing and could be depended upon for the performance of almost any task set him, except that once in a while he would develop a sudden streak of mischief and drink a river dry behind a drive or run off into the woods. Sometimes he would step on a ridge that formed the bank of the river and smash it down so that the river would start running out through his tracks, thus changing its course entirely from what Paul had counted on.

The cutting of the Deacon‘s timber tract went ahead so fast that Paul began looking ahead and wondering what he would do next. He was very much gratified to find that his fame had already begun to spread, so that he was offered enough logging contracts to keep him busy in that section of the country for several years to come. He was never one to shirk a task, was Paul, and the assurance of having ahead of him all the work that he could do made him happy indeed.