striking landmark.
* * * * *
WHAT is camp without a dog? Paul Bunyan loved dogs as well as the next
man but never would have one around that could not earn its keep. Paul's
dogs had to work, hunt or catch rats. It took a good dog to kill the
rats and mice in Paul's camps for the rodents picked up scraps of the
buffalo milk pancakes and grew to be as big as two year old bears.
[Illustration]
Elmer, the moose terrier, practiced up on the rats when he was a small
pup and was soon able to catch a moose on the run and finish it with one
shake. Elmer loafed around the cook camp and if the meat supply happened
to run low the cook would put the dog out the door and say, "Bring in a
moose." Elmer would run into the timber, catch a moose and bring it in
and repeat the performance until, after a few minutes work, the cook
figured he had enough for a mess and would call the dog in.
Sport, the reversible dog, was really the best hunter. He was part wolf
and part elephant hound and was raised on bear milk. One night when
Sport was quite young, he was playing around in the horse barn and Paul,
mistaking him for a mouse, threw a hand axe at him. The axe cut the dog
in two but Paul, instantly realizing what had happened, quickly stuck
the two halves together, gave the pup first aid and bandaged him up.
With careful nursing the dog soon recovered and then it was seen that
Paul in his haste had twisted the two halves so that the hind legs
pointed straight up. This proved to be an advantage for the dog learned
to run on one pair of legs for a while and then flop over without loss
of speed and run on the other pair. Because of this he never tired and
anything he started after got caught. Sport never got his full growth.
While still a pup he broke through four feet of ice on Lake Superior and
was drowned.
As a hunter, Paul would make old Nimrod himself look like a city dude
lost from his guide. He was also a good fisherman. Oldtimers tell of
seeing Paul as a small boy, fishing off the Atlantic Coast. He would
sail out early in the morning in his three-mast schooner and wade back
before breakfast with his boat full of fish on his shoulder.
About this time he got his shot gun that required four dishpans full of
powder and a keg of spikes to load each barrel. With this gun he could
shoot geese so high in the air they would spoil before reaching the
ground.
Tracking was Paul's favorite sport and no
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