Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1902-12-08

/
around below the ears, where his mother
had measured it with an inverted bowl,
and freshly trimmed him for life in the
| fort, and perhaps for the discontinue of
| savages, If he came under the scalping
knife. Open-mouthed or stern-jawed &C
cording to stories about Tecumseh, and
/ surmises on the enemy's march, and the
| likelihood Of a night attack.
"Tippecanoe was fought at o'clock in
/ the morning" said a soIdIer.
II was there" spoke out Johnny Apple
seed
No other man could say as much. All
| looked at him as he stood on his cauter-
| lied feet, stretching his arms, lean and
/ sun-cured, upward in the freight.
! Angels were there. In rain and dark
ness / heard them speak and say: He
hath cast the lot for them, and His hand
| hath divided ii unto them by line; they
shall possess it forever; from generation
| to generation shall they dwell therein.
| The wilderness and the solitary place
shall be glad for them, and the desert
shall rejoice and blossom as the rose!'"
Say, Johnny, what does an angel look
like?" piped up one of the boys, quite in
| fellowship.
Johnny Appleseed turned his rapt vision
aside and answered:
White robes were given unto every
one of them There had laid me down
in peace I'd sleep and the Lord made me
/ to dwell In safety. The camp-f1res burned
red in the sheltered place, and they who
were to possess the land watched by the
campfires. looked down from my high
I place, from my shelter of leaves and my
! log that the Lord gave me for bed, and
saw the red camp-fires blink in the dark
| ness.
"Then was 1 aware that the heatnen
crept betwixt me and the camp, surround
ing it as cloud that lies upon the ground.
| The rain fell upon us all, and there was
not so much sound as the rustling of
grasshoppers in tall grass. l. said they
viii surprise the camp and slay the sleep
ers, not knowing that they who were to
possess the land watched every man with
his weapon. But when I. would have
sounded the trumpet of warning. / heard
rife shot. and all the Indians rose up
! screeching and rushed at the red fires.
Then a sorcerer leaped upon my high
place, rafting many deer hoofs. and call
ing aloud that his brethren might hear his
voice. Light he promised them for them
selves, and darkness for the camp, and
he sang his war song, shouting and rat
Ting the deer hoofs. Also the Indians rat
tied deer hoofs, and it was like a giant
breathing his last. being shot with many
musket flashes.
"I saw steam through the darkness, for
the fires were drenched and trampled by
the men of the camp, and nc longer shone
as candles so that the Indians might see
by them to shoot. This sorcerer danced
and shouted, the deer hoofs ratified and
on this side and that men fought knee
to knee and breast to breast. I saw
through the wet dawn, and they who had
crept around the camp as a cloud arose
as grasshoppers and fed to the swamp.
'"rhen did the sorcerer sit upon his
heels, and / beheld he had but one eye,
and he covered it from the light.
But the men in the camp shouted with
a mighty shouting. And after their
shouting 1 heard again the voices of
angels saying. He hath cast the lot for
them, and His hand hath divided it unto
them by line; they shall possess it for
ever; from generation to generation shall
they dwell therein The wilderness and
the solitary place shall be glad for them.
and the desert shall rejoice and blossom
as the roseP
The speaker sat down. and one of the
men remarked:
80 that's the way the battle of Tippe-
canoe looked to Johnny Appleseed."
But the smallest boy thoughtfully in
quired:
"say. Johnny. haven't the Indians any
angels?"
you'll wish they was with the angels
if they ever get you by the hair" laugh
ed one of the men.
Soldiers began moving their single can
non a six-pounder, from one block-house
to another. All the men jumped up to
help, as the raising Of home, and put
themselves In the way so ardently that
they had to be ordered back.
When everybody but ourselves had left
the starlit open place, Johnny Appleseed
lay down and stretched his heels to the
blaze. A soldier added another log, and
kicked into the flame those fallen away.
Though IL was the end of July Lake Erie
cooled the inland forests
Sentinels were posted in the blockhous-
es. Quiet settled on the camp; and / sat
turning many things in my mind besides
the impending battle. Napoleon Bona
parte had made disastrous campaign in
Russia. II 1 were yet in France; If the
Marquis du Plessy had lived; if I had
not gone to Mittau; if the self might
have been, that always haunts US, stood
ready to take advantage of the turn
Yet the thing which cannot be under
stood by men reared under old govern
ments had befallen me. l must have
drawn the wilderness into my blood. Its
possibilities held me. If l had stayed in
France at twenty. I should have been
Frenchman. The following year made me
an American. The passion that binds you
to land is no more to be explained than
the fact that many women are beautiful,
while only one is vitality interesting.
The wilderness mystic was sitting up
looking at me.
"I see two people in YOU he said.
"Only two?"
Two seperate men,
What are their names?"
Their names cannot see."
well. suppose we call them Louis and
Lazarre."
His eyes sparkled
You are a white man." he pronounced.
by that I mean you are not stained with
many vile sins"
IT hadn't an equal chance with other
men. / lost nine years.
"Mebby," hazarded Johnny Appleseed
cautiously, you are the one appointed to
open and read what is sealed"
IF you mean to interpret what you
read, I'm afraid I am not the one. Where
did you get those leavesP'
From a book that I divided up to
distribute among the people,"
Doesn't that destroy the sense?"
mo. 1 carry the pages in their order
from cabin to cabin
He came around the fire with the light
ness of an Indian. and gave me his own
fragment to examine. 1t proved to be
from the writings of one Emanuel Swed-
enborg.
With smile which seemed to lessen the
size of his face and concentrate its ex-
preston to a shining point. Johnny Apple