Paul’s fast foot work made him a “good man on the round stuff” and in spite of his weight he had no trouble running around on the floating logs, even the small ones.  It was said that Paul could spin a log till the bark came off and then run ashore on the bubbles.  He once threw a peavy handle into the Mississippi at St. Louis and standing on it, poled up to Brainerd, Minnesota.  Paul was a “white water bucko” and rode water so rough it would tear an ordinary man in two to drink out of the river.

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Johnny Inkslinger was Paul’s headquarters clerk.  He invented bookkeeping about the time Paul invented logging.  He was something of a genius and perfected his own office appliances to increase efficiency.  His fountain pen was made by running a hose from a barrel of ink and with it he could “daub out a walk” quicker than the recipient of the pay-off could tie the knot in his tussick rope.

One winter Johnny left off crossing the “t’s” and dotting the “i’s” and saved nine barrels of ink.  The lumberjacks accused him of using a split pencil to charge up the tobacco and socks they bought at the wanagan but this was just bunkshanty talk (is this the origin of the classic term “the bunk"?) for Johnny never cheated anyone.

Have you ever encountered the Mosquito of the North Country?  You thought they were pretty well developed animals with keen appetites, didn’t you?  Then you can appreciate what Paul Bunyan was up against when he was surrounded by the vast swarms of the giant ancestors of the present race of mosquitoes, getting their first taste of human victims.  The present mosquito is but a degenerate remnant of the species.  Now they rarely weigh more than a pound or measure more than fourteen or fifteen inches from tip to tip.

Paul had to keep his men and oxen in the camps with doors and windows barred.  Men armed with pikepoles and axes fought off the insects that tore the shakes off the roof in their efforts to gain entrance.  The big buck mosquitoes fought among themselves and trampled down the weaker members of the swarm and to this alone Paul Bunyan and his crew owe their lives.

Paul determined to conquer the mosquitoes before another season arrived.  He thought of the big Bumble Bees back home and sent for several yoke of them.  These, he hoped would destroy the mosquitoes.  Sourdough Sam brought out two pair of bees, overland on foot.  There was no other way to travel for the flight of the beasts could not be controlled.  Their wings were strapped with surcingles, they checked their stingers with Sam and walking shoes were provided for them.  Sam brought them through without losing a bee.

The cure was worse than the original trouble.  The Mosquitoes and the Bees made a hit with each other.  They soon intermarried and their off-spring, as often happens, were worse than their parents.  They had stingers fore-and-aft and could get you coming or going.

Their bee blood caused their downfall in the long run.  Their craving for sweets could only be satisfied by sugar and molasses in large quantities, for what is a flower to an insect with a ten-gallon stomach?  One day the whole tribe flew across Lake Superior to attack a fleet of ships bringing sugar to Paul’s camps.  They destroyed the ships but ate so much sugar they could not fly and all were drowned.