How the rabbit got his short tail & the blue ox makes lakes How the Rabbit Got Its Short Tail & The Blue Ox Makes Lakes Traditional How the Rabbit Got Its Short Tail 1Long ago, all the animals lived together on Animal Island. Rabbit was one of the proudest animals, and he liked to show off his very long, furry tail. Fox grew tired of listening to Rabbit boast about his tail and decided to play a trick on him. 2One winter morning, Fox went to the lake where the animals liked to drink. The lake was frozen, so Fox cut a hole in the ice. Then, she tied a fish to her tail and dipped it into the chilly water. When Rabbit arrived at the lake, he wanted to know what was happening. 3“I’m fishing with my tail, Rabbit,” announced Fox, displaying the fish. 4“With my long, beautiful tail, I can certainly catch ten fish!” bragged Rabbit. He cut into the ice and dipped his tail into the water. Overnight the water froze, and Rabbit’s tail became stuck. Fox laughed at Rabbit, who tugged so hard that his long tail popped off! 5And that is why rabbits have short tails. The Blue Ox Makes Lakes 6In America's pioneer days, Paul Bunyan was the biggest, strongest lumberjack ever to swing an ax. He could chop down a whole forest with one swing. He could eat four dozen eggs and a sack of potatoes each morning for breakfast. 7One winter, when the weather was so cold that the snow turned blue, Paul Bunyan found a baby ox nearly frozen in the ice. A big man like Paul Bunyan needed an ox to carry all the lumber he chopped. The lumberjack warmed the little ox by the fire, but he stayed as blue as the sky. Paul Bunyan named the animal Babe the Blue Ox. 8Babe grew as big as a house and carried the trees that Paul Bunyan chopped. He tricked the lumberjacks with heavy footsteps that shook the ground like earthquakes. As Babe the Blue Ox journeyed across the country, he left a trail of deep hoof prints. When those giant hoof prints filled with rain, they formed the thousand lakes of Minnesota. Qestion: How are the themes of these two stories similar?