“Of precious seed this handful take; Take next this Bible Holy: In good soil sow both gifts, for sake Of Him, the meek and lowly. “Farewell! I go!--the forest calls My life to ceaseless labors; Wherever danger’s shadow falls I fly to save my neighbors. “I save; I neither curse nor slay; I am a voice that crieth In night and wilderness. Away! Whoever doubteth, dieth!” The prophet vanished in the night, Like some fleet ghost belated; Then, awe-struck, fled with panic fright The household, evil-fated. They hurried on with stumbling feet, Foreboding ambuscado; Bewildered hope told of retreat In frontier palisado. But ere a mile of tangled maze Their bleeding hands had broken, Their home-roof set the dark ablaze, Fulfilling doom forespoken. The savage death-whoop rent the air! A howl of rage infernal! The fugitives were in Thy care, Almighty Power eternal! Unscathed by tomahawk or knife, In bosky dingle nested, The hunted pioneer, with wife And babes, hid unmolested. The lad, when age his locks of gold Had changed to silver glory, Told grandchildren, as I have told, This western wildwood story. Told how the fertile seeds had grown To famous trees, and thriven; And oft the Sacred Book was shown, By that weird Pilgrim given. Remember Johnny Appleseed, All ye who love the apple; He served his kind by Word and Deed, In God’s grand greenwood chapel. WENDING WESTWARD. A new star rose in Freedom’s sky A hundred years ago; It gleamed on Labor’s wistful eye, With bright magnetic glow; Hope and Courage whispered, Go, Ye who toil and ye who wait! Open swings the People’s gate! Beyond the mountains and under the skies Of the Wonderful West your Canaan lies:-- On the banks of the Beautiful River, By the shores of the Lakes of the North, There fortune to each will deliver His share of the teeming earth. Jocund voices called from the dark Hesperian solitude, saying, Hark! Harken, ye people! come from the East, Come from the marge of the ocean, come! Here in the Wilderness spread a feast; This is the poor man’s welcome home.