Johnny Appleseed

People in every country have their legends and stories of great men. Americans also have a lot of stories about their heroes and famous men. The story of Johnny Appleseed is one of them.

Johnny Appleseed. What a strange name for a man! His real name was Jonathan Chapman and he lived from 1775 to 1845. Johnny liked to grow apple-trees from seed and take care of them. That is how he got his name.

As a young man he used to travel a lot about his country. He always carried bags of seed from the apples of his apple-trees with him. He took some seed from the bags and dropped it on the ground as he walked. Many of the seeds grew and as the years passed, became large apple-trees. To plant apple-trees and to take care of them was the most important thing in Jonathan Chapman’s life. He used to describe trees with apples on them in such beautiful words that his listeners could almost see the trees before their eyes. And if somebody cut down an apple-tree, it seemed to Johnny Appleseed the most terrible thing that a man could do. He treated trees as if they were people.

His name became well known in different parts of the country. He appeared in many places with his bags of apple seed. And later, apple orchards grew up everywhere where he had lived and worked.

Everybody treated Johnny Appleseed kindly. With grown-up people, he was usually quiet. But he showed great love for children and he always had little presents for his favorites. His kindness made him a friend to all children.

Johnny Appleseed believed that it was wrong to kill any animals for food. He used to say, "All that is necessary for our food is given to us by the soil.” People knew that he was always ready to protect an animal if it was hurt or in danger. In the autumn, if he found any homeless animals, he used to collect them in one place and give them food until the next spring. Then he took them away to some grassy place where they could find food for themselves.

Johnny Appleseed lived a long life, and he planted thousands of apple-trees. People always remembered him and made him the hero of many stories, poems and paintings. Stories about Johnny Appleseed were told and retold in many different ways, and his name became a legend.