The Young Paul

by Wallace Wadsworth

Many, many years have passed since Paul Bunyan was born. In fact, so long ago has it been that no one knows just who his parents were, though it is said that his father was a fine, upstanding man of great strength and his mother a sturdy lass from one of the French-Canadian provinces. Whoever they were, they must have been very proud of their lusty son, as well they might be. His birthplace is said to have been somewhere along the northern coast of Maine, and the time was long ago, before the Revolutionary War, while England still ruled the Thirteen Colonies.

Paul grew so fast that he was the wonder of people for miles around. When he was only a few weeks old his mother had to fix his bed out of doors, for he had grown so big by that time that he could no longer be taken through the door of his parents’ cabin. The out-of-doors air seemed to agree with him, however, and he continued to thrive, until one night he got the colic! Being such a big youngster, there was a very great deal of him to have the colic, as one may well believe, and his pain must have been fully in keeping with his size from the tremendous commotion which he stirred up. All the neighbours for miles around thought they were hearing the roar of a terrific storm and hid in their cellars until it should blow over.

Perhaps his breaking into his father‘s smoke-house that day had something to do with his illness. The family‘s winter supply of smoked hams, bacon and salt pork were stored there, but when Paul was discovered, sound asleep in the centre of the smokehouse floor, there was not a single ham or side of bacon left in sight. The grease on his hands and face showed pretty surely what had happened to the missing victuals, and as the youngster had only one tooth at the time, he most likely did not give the rich meats the thorough chewing they should have had. At any rate, whether this was the cause of his colic or not, he rolled and kicked and tossed about that night at a prodigious rate, and when morning came it was found that he had destroyed four square miles of standing timber.