logger and to hear any of Joe's kind and generation tell these tales is to be blessed.
This is the story that Black Joe told:
"Now, this here mule team of Paul's was a right good pair. They done a lot of work an' Paul he treated 'em right, allus cattelatin' it was best policy to be good to stock. When they was workin' hard it cost a lot to keep 'em up fer sure, but when they was just standin' in th' barn he only fed 'em four bushels of corn to th' feed.
"Paul fed 'em hisself, when he wasn't away, an' when he was gone Swede Charley looked atter 'em—along with th' ox-team, little Babe an' her mate. You heerd tell 'bout that team, ain't you?
"My God, Taylor, don't you know nothin'? This here was a good team, too. Never seen 'em myself, but I knowed a chore boy who worked for Paul th' winter of th' blue snow, an' he was a-tellin' as how little Babe was four axe-handles wide atween th' eyes—"
He spit and wiped his chin.
"One day when Paul was loggin' off section thirty-seven, he was feedin' th' mules an' he sees what looks like a good-sized kernel of corn. Might' good-sized kernel, all right. Paul, he was allus lookin' atter good things, so he stuck her in his vest pocket an' didn't give it to th' mules.
"Atter dinner he was rummagin' round fer a tooth-pick an' locates this here kernel o' corn. He was out behint th' barn jus' then an' so he kicks a hole in th' ground an' plants her—
"That was th' big barn. See, Paul he kep' a lotta teams on th' haul which meant pret' big barn. Big job, cleanin' this here barn an' Paul was great for this—now, efficiency.
