Folks Call Me Appleseed John, by Andrew Glass, is a wonderful kid's book read aloud for preschool, kindergarten, and elementary school ages (and adults still young at heart), for the Fall / Autumn season.
Parents and teachers, join me here at The Children's Storytime Bookshelf for daily read alouds in the classroom, at bedtime, or anytime!
Follow The Children's Storytime Bookshelf for a classic children's library.
#kidsbooksreadaloud #readaloud #readaloudbooksforchildren
Parents and teachers, join me here at The Children's Storytime Bookshelf for daily read alouds in the classroom, at bedtime, or anytime!
Follow The Children's Storytime Bookshelf for a classic children's library.
#kidsbooksreadaloud #readaloud #readaloudbooksforchildren
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LearningTranscript
00:00Thanks for watching.
00:27Folks Call Me Appleseed John by Andrew Glass
00:38When I was still a young man, I walked barefoot across the Allegheny Plateau and began planting
00:45apple seeds in the wilderness.
00:47I sold my seedlings to settlers right there on the frontier.
00:51Before long, even if folks had nothing else, they had an orchard.
00:56They could eat apples right from their own trees, make apple butter and apple cider,
01:01and dry what was left to sustain them in the winter.
01:05My business prospered, and one day I wrote a letter to my half-brother back in Longmeadow,
01:10Massachusetts.
01:11Dear Nathaniel, I am making a comfortable living here on French Creek.
01:16There is plenty of work for two, and I would welcome your company.
01:20Please come soon.
01:22Your half-brother, John.
01:24I carried the letter to Mr. Hale's trading post.
01:30Nathaniel rode with the settlers' wagons west to Fort Pitt and made the last leg of his
01:35journey up the Allegheny River from Fort Pitt to French Creek by flatboat.
01:40On the way, they teased him some.
01:42I hear tell that your brother John wears a pot for a hat, they'd say, and just a burlap
01:48sack instead of clothes.
01:51Instead of listening to such foolishness, Nathaniel might better have spent his time
01:55learning something useful about life in the wilderness.
02:01When he finally arrived on French Creek, I wasn't far off.
02:05You can climb ashore right there, sonny, I heard the boatman shout.
02:10Then I heard Nathaniel ask, but where's the house, and where's my big brother John?
02:16I expect your big brother is off in the woods someplace discoursing with squirrels, chuckled
02:21the boatman, and I'll just betcha a pig and a poke that big ol' hollow sycamore tree is
02:27your new house.
02:29Watch out for engines, sonny, I heard him shout as he pushed off, leaving poor Nathaniel
02:34alone.
02:38If the boy's ears had worked as well as a boy's ears ought to work, he'd have heard
02:43me right there behind him.
02:45But when I picked him up and swung him around like a straw scarecrow, he looked as though
02:49he'd been snatched up by the spirit world.
02:52Bless you, Nathaniel, I said gently, fear no evil, I'm your brother John.
02:59Nowadays folks call me Appleseed John.
03:05I made a fire and boiled some cornmeal into mush.
03:09Nathaniel didn't like the look of it, but he gobbled up his share and most of mine like
03:13a half-starved mongrel dog.
03:16Then he made himself comfortable inside our cozy sycamore tree.
03:20There was a commodious bed of leaves and blankets that I didn't use much, preferring, as I do,
03:26to sleep under the stars.
03:32Over the next days we began gathering nuts and berries.
03:36We stored our provisions in hinged boxes to keep friendly critters from helping themselves.
03:42We wandered all through the forest, preparing our seedlings to weather the bitter cold.
03:51Autumn ended abruptly that year with an early snowstorm.
03:55At first we decorated our camp with snow angels and built ice sentinels along the creek.
04:00In the evening I read to Nathaniel and we discussed the great ideas contained in our
04:05books.
04:06We talked of planting and harvesting apple trees in the spring.
04:10And at night I slept like a bear.
04:13But Nathaniel soon grew discontented.
04:16He huddled inside the sycamore, wrapped in every stitch of warm clothing he had carried
04:20from Massachusetts, and munched nuts and dried fruit.
04:25This isn't exactly what I expected, he complained.
04:28I'm freezing.
04:30I wish we had a proper house with a solid door and a stove.
04:35The worst of it was, all his munching soon depleted our stores.
04:40Before long we had no more than three fingers' worth of dried fruit and nuts left in the
04:44hinged boxes.
04:46There wasn't anything to do but risk canoeing downriver to Fort Pitt, where I could purchase
04:51enough to feed us both until spring.
04:54Why can't I come along, too?
04:56Nathaniel asked.
04:58River travel can be dangerous in winter, I explained, wrapping myself in a blanket and
05:03pulling a small pot from its peg.
05:05It's much safer here.
05:08You're not planning to wear that mush pot on your head, Nathaniel asked.
05:14Sure am, I replied.
05:17It's more useful than any hat.
05:20It keeps my head dry.
05:21I can cook in it.
05:23Once I used it to discourage an unreasonable copperhead.
05:27Ain't much a man need fear when he's got a mush pot on his head.
05:34I started out paddling rapidly down the half-frozen Allegheny, but big chunks of floating ice
05:40made it rough-going.
05:41Finally, in the late afternoon, I pulled my canoe up on top of a huge cake of ice and
05:48stretched out, comfortable as a duke.
05:50I closed my eyes for a short nap.
06:05When I felt the morning sun fool on my face, I knew right away I must have floated past
06:10the fort during the night.
06:12A blanket of freshly fallen snow covered me.
06:16I made my way to shore, praying that Nathaniel hadn't foolishly gobbled up his meager provisions.
06:21But in my heart, I was sure that's exactly what he'd done.
06:27I couldn't just paddle back up the icy river, and I was nearly frozen myself.
06:33The first thing I needed was shelter.
06:35I dragged my canoe up the riverbank.
06:38Using it as a windbreak, I made a fire and warmed myself.
06:42I wrapped my bare feet with strips torn from my blanket.
06:47Then I waded into the deep snow and cut long, drooping branches from a birch tree.
06:53I warmed the branches over the fire until they were soft and wove them into crude snowshoes.
06:59I tied them to my feet with moose bark.
07:02Once I had put out the fire and buried my canoe in the underbrush, with every intention
07:07of returning in the spring, I began the long journey north to where the Allegheny River
07:12meets the Monongahela.
07:14When it grew dark, I cooked some frozen berries and nuts into mush in my tin pot and slept
07:20in a hollow log.
07:24The next day, I came upon a lean gray wolf caught in a cruel trap.
07:30She regarded me with golden eyes full of hatred and suspicion.
07:34I personally have always been on the best of terms with God's wild creatures, and
07:39my name, it seems, is widely known among them.
07:42"'God bless you, madam,' I said.
07:45"'Fear no evil.
07:46I'm Appleseed John.'"
07:49Then I gently removed the trap.
07:51I tended her through the evening and into the night, washing her wound with snow, and
07:56fell asleep to the soft drumming of her heartbeat.
08:02I dreamed of poor Nathaniel shivering in his icy bed.
08:06I saw ashes where his fire should have been, and more worrisome still, I saw four braves
08:12stealthily creeping toward him along French Creek.
08:16I woke with a start, sure that my vision was more than just an ordinary dream.
08:22There in the darkness I prayed.
08:24Indians had never done me any harm and I never took anything that belonged to them, but it
08:29riled them to see folks settling on their land.
08:37In the morning I trudged on north.
08:40My companion lipped along beside.
08:43We passed several remote cabins.
08:45I stopped long enough at the first to ask for something warm to wear.
08:49"'Any old thing,' I said.
08:51Those folks had nothing to spare but a moth-eaten old mother hubbard.
08:56I pulled it over my head gratefully and hurried along through the snow.
09:00I guess we made an odd sight, my companion and I.
09:04Folks didn't call out or even wave, they just stood wide-eyed and watched us pass.
09:10When we reached the clearing beyond the fort, I urged my friend to return to the deep woods,
09:15for I feared the soldiers would shoot her.
09:20By the time this sleepy sentry saw me, I was nearly through the gate.
09:24"'Who goes there?' he kind of squeaked.
09:28"'Bless you, soldier,' I replied.
09:30Fear no evil, I'm Appleseed John."
09:33He rubbed his eyes and waved me right on in, though I was ragged and peculiar-looking,
09:38and I expect smelled worse than a wild pig.
09:44At the general store I purchased beans and blankets, dried fruit and preserves,
09:50flour, long wool and underwear, mittens, and even English tea.
09:54I found a small bundle of books waiting that I'd ordered from Philadelphia.
10:02I stumbled back through the front gate, past the sentry and into the snow,
10:07with enough necessities and comforts to keep us warm and well-fed until spring.
10:12"'You'd best watch out for engines, John!' a soldier shouted down from the stockade.
10:18"'There's been talk of trouble up your way!' I shouted back over my shoulder.
10:23"'Remember that God put us here to be his brothers and sisters and stewards of the earth!'
10:32I soon stumbled upon a muley steer.
10:35The beast scraped with his hooves through the snow to the frozen earth
10:39and blew a blast of hot steam like a geyser from his nostrils.
10:44I only narrowly avoided his charge by jumping right out of my snowshoes to a low-hanging branch,
10:50leaving my provisions behind in the snow.
10:57"'Bless you, sir. Fear no evil,' I said, though it was I hanging helplessly overhead.
11:03"'I'm Appleseed John!'
11:05Fortunately, he had heard of an Appleseed John who found new homes for beasts abandoned in
11:10the wilderness. He allowed me to climb down and strap my bundle to his strong back.
11:16That accommodating steer and I plotted north along the river.
11:21We kept going through the evening and into the night, past remote cabins with glowing windows.
11:26They looked snug and warm, but we didn't slow down or rest until I arrived home.
11:35I saw just what I'd feared—five braves sitting cross-legged around a blazing fire
11:41in front of our hollow sycamore tree. One waved his bow wildly in the air,
11:46while the other shrieked and whooped. I crept forward more silently than a snake,
11:52hoping to frighten them away and save Nathaniel.
11:59I was all but invisible until I leapt out into the firelight, all flapping rags and mush pot hat.
12:07They jumped to their feet, all right, startled, just as if they'd seen a ghost.
12:12But instead of fleeing, all five stood their ground. My heart was beating like a war drum.
12:20"'Bless you all,' I said.
12:22"'Fear no evil.'
12:23The braves stood silently as stone. My voice trembled.
12:28"'I'm John.'
12:29"'Appleseed John!' they shouted and laughed and hooted.
12:40"'We've been waiting for you!'
12:42Then I recognized Nathaniel. He had feathers in his hair and held a hunting bow.
12:48I threw my arms around my little brother and we laughed together.
12:52Young Snake, Bottle Beaver, Twenty Canoes, and Old Halftown turned out to be angels after all.
12:59They were Senecas who had found Nathaniel starved and nearly frozen.
13:04They had saved his life and taught him to hunt small game with the bow and arrows he made himself.
13:10That's their way."
13:15Folks soon came and settled up and down French Creek.
13:18Nathaniel stayed on, but I preferred paths through the forest over town roads.
13:24So I moved west again, ahead of the settlers, into the Ohio wilderness.
13:28Carrying a bag filled with apple seeds.