Paul Austin Kelly - Ballad Of Johnny Appleseed lyrics

In the great Ohio Valley The old farmers tell a story That their fathers told to them All the way back to 1840 The story of a ghost That sings above the rustling trees And the farmers know the name for him Johnny Appleseed He was born John Chapman And his brother was Nathaniel From a farm in Ma**achusetts They lit out for Pennsylvania And he told his brother All about his dream Nat, someday they'll have a name for me Johnny Appleseed REFRAIN Apple seeds, take and sow them Apple seeds, take and grow them They will bring you in good time Summer pies and Autumn wine Is that coffee that you're brewing, my good lady? And he gathered up his treasure At the cider mills round Pittsburgh He packed them into buckskin sacks So he could barely lift'em Then he lashed together two birch bark canoes And he bid Nathaniel fair-thee-well And Nat bid him adieu His voice sang o'er the waters And it made the settlers shiver As they fished along the banks Of the great Ohio River As he paddled up the branching streams Through the marshes and the reeds He would call his name out loud and clear Johnny Appleseed (REFRAIN) Then he slung his pack across his back And on his head a tin pot And he wandered through the forests wild Seeking out the right spots ??There's going to be an orchard here someday,? He'd say to all the squirrels ??Don't take these seeds away!? One day he found a trading post Where trappers bartered fur skins And he traded fists of apple seeds For a bony horse named Hawkins And lying nearby in the weeds Was a wolf pup in a bear trap Crying, ??Johnny Appleseed!? Well, he opened up that trap Made a splint and bound his leg up Then they hit the road together Johnny, Hawkins, and the wolf pup The power of apples was their only creed And his name and fame spread far and near He was Johnny Appleseed (REFRAIN) So they journeyed through the forests Down the valleys, along rivers And they witnessed the arrival Of the potters and the weavers The blacksmiths and the carpenters all came To this vast and fastly growing land To conquer and to tame In the spring of 1845 At an Indiana farmhouse He slept up in a hay loft Where a barn cat chased a field mouse And his soul that night did softly slip away While the birds sang all the whole night through At least that's what they say Now his spirit haunts the valley Of the great Ohio River As he brews his coffee o'er a fire Some still can feel the shiver As he sings above the rustling of the trees You can hear the wind a-whispering Johnny Appleseed