The next spring was the year the rain came up from China. It rained so
hard and so long that the grass was all washed out by the roots and Paul
had a great time feeding his cattle. Babe had to learn to eat pancakes
like Benny. That was the time Paul used the straw hats for an emergency
ration.

When Paul's drive came down, folks in the settlements were astonished to
see all the river-pigs wearing huge straw bats. The reason for this was
soon apparent. When the fodder ran out every man was politely requested
to toss his hat into the ring. Hundreds of straw hats were used to make
a lunch for Babe.

When Paul Bunyan took up efficiency engineering he went at the the job
with all his customary thoroughness. He did not fool around clocking the
crew with a stop watch, counting motions and deducting the ones used for
borrowing chews, going for drinks, dodging the boss and preparing for
quitting time. He decided to cut out labor altogether.

"What's the use," said Paul, "of all this sawing, swamping, skidding,
decking, grading and icing roads, loading, hauling and landing? The
object of the game is to get the trees to the landing, ain't it? Well,
why not do it and get it off your mind?"

So he hitched Babe to a section of land and snaked in the whole 640
acres at one drag. At the landing the trees were cut off just like
shearing a sheep and the denuded section hauled back to its original
place. This simplified matters and made the work a lot easier. Six trips
a day, six days a week just cleaned up a township for section 37 was
never hauled back to the woods on Saturday night but was left on the