Hi kids, gather round.
It’s Fairy Tale time...
actually this one is a folk tale…
or a fairy tale for Folks…
or a Folk tale for fairies…
either way it’s a good one!
Let’s call it Folk Tale Time!
This one is about American legend,
Johnny Appleseed!
Are you ready? Let’s go!
Once upon a time
(September 26, 1774, to be exact!)
a little boy named Johnny Appleseed was born!
Well, they didn’t call him Johnny Appleseed back then.
His real name was John Chapman.
Little Johnny Chapman grew up and decided to go explore the country.
Remember, this was over 200 years ago,
so he didn’t get in his car
or fly in a plane,
or even take the bus...
Johnny took off on foot!
And not only did he go on foot,
he went BAREFOOT!
Johnny was always barefoot—
He even went barefoot in the winter!
He would walk on snow,
and ice,
and rocks,
like it was a cakewalk!
That means something that’s really easy...
he didn’t actually walk on cakes.
Why would he do that?
Cakes are delicious!
Anyway, enough about his feet!
Let’s get to the apples.
See, everywhere Johnny went, he carried a sack full of appleseeds.
He walked thousands of miles planting apple trees!
Some say he just dropped seeds as he went along,
kind of like Hansel and Gretel did with crumbs,
but Johnny Appleseed didn’t do that.
He planted apple nurseries.
They’re called nurseries because they’re for baby trees!
I wonder if Johnny read nursery rhymes to the baby trees?
“Little Jack Horner sat in a corner,
eating an apple pie…
Oops! I mean blueberry pie!”
Pretty soon people all over the country knew the man called Johnny Appleseed.
A guy like Johnny is hard to forget.
Not only did he go around barefoot, planting apples,
he was also had a habit of giving away his clothes to people who needed them.
Sometimes he just wore a sack with armholes cut out!
But the strangest thing about Johnny’s outfit was his hat.
He wore a tin cookpot on his head.
You might think that’s strange,
but have you ever tried to cook beans in a baseball cap?
Forget about it!
Johnny looked strange,
but that didn’t stop people from loving him.
He was kind to children, and kind to the poor.
He loved animals and nature (even bugs!)
—one time he put out his campfire because he saw a mosquito get burned in the flame!
Ouch!
Sorry bout that!
Thanks, Johnny!
Johnny Appleseed spent his entire life just planting apples and happiness.
Over the years, people shared their stories about him,
turning Johnny Appleseed into a legend.
The stories grew and spread,
just like an apple tree and its seeds,
and that’s why we still talk about Johnny Appleseed today.
Moral of the story, kids, be nice and share your apples,
and maybe you’ll become a folk hero with a cool nickname!
And best of all, you might not have to wear shoes!!
Check out more stories, like Mulan right here at Cool School!
And don’t forget to subscribe! Bye!