This story goes back about 15 years when our #2 son was in his cub scout years. We parents put together a 'Cub Scout Jeopardy' quiz for the kids with the category of 'Tall Tales'.

Question #1 - This lumberjack road a blue ox named Babe and leveled a forest with one swing of his ax. No answer provided by the kids

Question #2 - This brave engineer stayed with his train and lost his life warning the driver & passengers of the upcoming crash. No answer provided by the kids

Question #3 - In a contest with a steam drill machine, this workman (steel driver) won a contest digging out a tunnel for a railway line.

Hesitance, pause, carpet shuffling of shoes and then the spunkiest lad in the bunch chimed out - "I know the answer. Who was Harriet Tubman?".

Convulsive laughter ensued. Our 'all-knowing scout master' later explained the logic this way -

Harriet Tubman was a historical black person who was instrumental in the founding of the Underground Railroad (QED - as was to be shown).

voyager