It turns out that he can cook flapjacks, cookies, fish, steak, and the loggers are appeased. He arrives and describes his attempts to "find himself" by continuous travelling (" I come from open spaces"). The lumberjacks turn on Inkslinger, but are interrupted by the offstage voice of Slim (" In fair days and in foul Round the world and back").
Inkslinger tries to persuade Sam and Ben to vary the menu, but they walk away in a huff. While Paul is away, there is discontent at the unvarying rations of soup and beans (" Do I look the sort of fellow Whom you might expect to bellow"). Some years later, Carrie died, and Paul, before her funeral, promised Tiny that he would be a better father. A daughter, Tiny, was born, but her parents' marriage was unhappy, and she and Carrie left home. The Narrator describes how Paul went wife-hunting, found an appropriately sized partner (Carrie), and married her (" The Spring came and the Summer and Fall").
Inkslinger, equally defeated, returns and accepts the job of book-keeper. Paul introduces a "dream of warning", sung by a quartet of the defeated (" Gold in the North came the blizzard to say"). Sam and Ben recruit cats Moppet and Poppet, and the dog Fido, to aid them in their work (" The single creature lives a partial life"). Paul predicts that, as Inkslinger has no resources, he will have to return. Johnny Inkslinger, an impecunious book-keeper, also turns up, but wishes to be independent and refuses offers of soup, beans and recompense before travelling on. Bad cooks Sam and Ben, devotees (respectively) of soup and beans, arrive (" Sam for Soups, Ben for beans", a parody of campaigns): However, there is still a need for some cooks who can provide the lumberjacks with nutritious food. The Swedes quarrel over which of them should be foreman, but a Western Union Boy bicycles in with a telegram from the King of Sweden, whose recommended foreman, Hel Helson, arrives and is duly appointed by Paul. Paul recruits lumberjacks from all over Europe (" My birthplace was in Sweden, it's a very long way off"). The two of them leave for the South, where Paul sets up a camp. One night, he awoke to find that his forehead was being licked by Babe the Blue Cow. The Narrator recounts the birth and growth of Paul, who gained 346 pounds every week, became as tall as the Empire State Building and had a stride of 3.7 miles (" The cold wind blew through the crooked thorn"). To the horror of the old trees, the moon turns blue (" It isn't very often the conservatives are wrong"). The geese explain that the old trees will have to leave when a Man arrives: Paul Bunyan will be born at the next blue moon. The old trees like life to be slow (" Since the birth Of the earth"), but are challenged by four young trees and three wild geese. Synopsis Place: In and around the American forest Time: Early- to mid- twentieth century Prologue Lumberjacks, farmers, frontier women, animals, trees, wild geese Narrator and Balladeer (in the Interludes)
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