Once the 15 minute break was over, Nightwing as Daniel Boone, continued on with the play.
"Now, well, we're next going to get into is the age ol' classic of Johnny Appleseed. However, due to the original accounts not being very interesting for the very little ones here and having tons of unnecessary details that don't do much in the grand scheme of things, I'll be reading a transcript of Disney's Melody Time, where it will have much better descriptions of the tall tale." Richard held up some papers.
"This is the story of John Chapman. A supposed real life pioneer born in 1774 and died in 1845. What may have been reality back then, it became legend over time. Johnny lived on a farm, near where Pittsburgh is. The year was 1806, or somewhere around then, and back then, he didn't look like a pioneer. He was a bit of a saw-off, scrawny little fella. That didn't phase him though." Starfire was working on a cardboard apple tree, picking the apples. She was dressed like an apple rancher, her hair twisted into a long, pretty braid.
"This is such the good boon of apples." The Tamaranean showed them. "You would not think I only need the sun, the rain, and the apple seed. But it is my way of living the good life. I wake up every morning, happy, knowing that I have my apple trees."
"Working, singing, carefree, and gay." The Titan leader then whispered, "That word meant happy back then, not sexual orientation." Then he resumed. "Yes, working and singing was how Johnny spent each day, attending to his apple trees. But lately, little Johnny here would feel a stir the air.
"Oh, what is that noise I hear over yonder?" Starfire asked as she looked beyond the fence, and saw Cyborg, Beast and Jinx marching along a laid down path on the stage.
"A rumbling, rolling underbeat of restless men with restless feet." The three Titans began singing.
"Get on the wagon rolling West, out to the great unknown! Get on the wagon rolling West, or you'll be left alone! We've made a home before, we're starting out again!" Jinx sang that part. "We ain't afraid of man or beast. We're strong-hearted men. So, get on the wagon rolling West, seeking a land that's new! Get on the wagon rolling West, there's plenty of room for you! Get on the wagon rolling West, out to the great unknown! Get on the wagon rolling West, or you'll be left alone! The rivers may be wide, the mountains may be tall, but nothing stops the pioneer, we're trail-blazers all!" Starfire then realized she was in a self-fueled fantasy.
"But poor Johnny, he were no pioneer, and he knowed it. It was all just pretend. And them folks going West to build this nation sure may picking apples look like a plum useless occupation.
"Oh how I wish I could set the trails ablaze." Starfire sighed with longing.
"Well, that's when a miracle happened."
"Well, what's holding you down Johnny?" A feminine, invisible voice came from nowhere. "go on. Going out west, if that's your choice." Raven teleported onto the fence, in a flash of light. Though she was just wearing similar looking pioneer clothing, and a Boone hat.
"My, I believe that's an angel!" Richard dramatically gasped. "Johnny's own private guardian angel! Might look mighty odd to you and me. But you know, that's just the way John figured he'd be.
"Well, speak up boy." Raven told Starfire as she skinned an apple, and carved the core out. "Don't just stand there gawking. Unlock your jaw and get to talking."
"Oh, yes ma'am!" The alien princess nodded. "Why do I not go west? It is because I do not have the muscle. Or the breadth of chest. Out there, it's the strong who survive. And... I am just about the puniest fella alive." She began to walk away.
"Shame on you, Johnny." Raven floated towards Starfire. "You got faith, courage, and a level head." The half-demon bumped her chest and tapped her head.
"Oh shucks, but you see... all I know are how to pick apples."
"And what's wrong with apples, if you please?" Raven began to sing. "Ain't they about the finest fruit in all the land?" Raven summoned a table, with a bunch of apple based consumables. Just think, Johnny, of all the things that apples make. There's pickled apples. Apple tart and apple pastries. Apple dumplings, not to mention."
"Apple sauce?"
"Yes! There's apple fritters, light as thistle. And for folks to wet their whistle, tangy apple cider in a glass! Stew them, fry them, boil them, bake them!"
"Apple pie and apple cake, mmm!"
"You can cook them in anyway! There's apple this and apple that, enough recipes to fill a hat! Why, I could carry on like this all day! So pack your stuff and get going! Get them apple trees growing! There's a lot of work out there to do!"
"There is a lot of work to do! Only... I do not have the traps, neither the gear. Or none of the things I will need out there."
"Johnny, you already have everything you need for your journey. Why, you got all the seeds you're needing, and for pretty darn good reading, here's a book. And here's a mighty handy bonnet." Raven held up a cooking pan, wearing it as a hat. "It's even got a handle on it. Turn upside down and you can cook with it. So come on Johnny, you should get going. Get them apple trees growing."
"Yes! There is a lot of work out there to do!" Starfire was determined as she walked off the ranch, starting her journey out west, while Raven started to disappear.
"And that's how it all began. That's how Johnny, all alone, set out to meet the great unknown. It was a mighty big and fearsome place for anyone to face. He swam through rivers. He trekked through dark forests. He tiptoed under waterfalls. Johnny was all alone, without no knife and no gun. And though the forest are dark and wide, with fearsome critters on every side, Johnny just kept walking on. He walked until at last he found a little spot of open ground, with fertile soil and warmsome breeze. A likely place for apple seeds.
"Joy!" Starfire yelled, before throwing seeds onto the stage.
"Now the varmints here, they couldn't know if John was friend or John was foe. So, some took off in sudden flight." Beast took off as a frightened woodland animal. "Some got set to claw and bite." Beast loomed over Starfire as a green bear well she used a branch to dig out some holes in a small plot of dirt on stage. "But if Johnny had seen them, he paid no heed. Just got busy planting apple seed." Starfire started whistling. As she whistled, animal, cut out, start to pop up from all angles. "Now them varmints from everywhere. To watch Johnny digging. They didn't like what they were seeing. They didn't trust no human being. To them, that ornery human had to go." The younger kids in the audience, started to cry out to Starfire, who was playing as Johnny Appleseed. "But who was going to tell him so? Not a soul could answer that. Until here come along, black and white cat." Beast came in, not as a cat, but a skunk. "Now he weren't too bright, but he didn't much care." Beast looked offended, before pointing his nose up and walked more insulted like. The audience quietly chuckled. "Oh, I guess he did. Anyway, he knew he had a certain air about him." Beast walked around Starfire's legs, while she was planting apple seeds when the branch she was using as a hoe fell over and hit Garfield in the head, the warrior princess gasped. But before Beast could spray her, Starfire cooed,
"Kitty! Oh, you are the so soft and cuddly!" She stroked his striped back, like she would do for any pet cat. The shapeshifter like the attention.
"Well, that done it. The critters have never seen the beat of that. The likes of a human liking that cat, or skunk. Why shucks, this year human had went and busted every precedent. He was a very first to come, without no knife, and no gun." Beast transformed into a cougar, so that she had a bigger cat to pet and play with. "And so it was, from that time on, every last living varmint was a friend to Johnny." Starfire started whistling again as she continued on her journey. "Well, as time went by, Johnny kept right on planting his apple trees, and making friends everywhere. And his best friends were the pioneers."
"For, of course, John was planting more than apple tree. He was planting his own boundless face encouraged too. And that give folks new heart. New hope in the job they had to do." a clip was shown on the back wall, showing a group of apple tree plantations spread across a forest. "And as more and more pioneers come to push back the forest, the kindly deeds of little Johnny Appleseed spread throughout the land. And more than once, with a good, old-fashioned jubilee, folks would honor, Johnny Appleseed, and the fruit of the apple tree. Now sometimes, if John was passing by, he'd mosey on over and kind of look in on the doings, because it sure tickled him to see how the fruit of his labors brought all kinds of folks together and made them good neighbors." Starfire was now wearing a fake beard to show that enough time has passed to show that her hair was growing along with the apple trees she planted. "Yep, Johnny did bring folks a heap of happiness. And he wasn't even looking for thanks for it. Didn't have the time for it. Now sometimes he might sit down for dinner every once in a while, but he always made sure that all the children were fed before he would feast. He knew someone like him can't take no rest, if he aims to plant the whole darn wilderness with apple trees. It's all was, for more than 40 years, John walked and planted that old frontier."
Starfire, with gray fake hairs, and make up applied wrinkles, showed that she kept doing this until she was old. "And in that space of two score years, he threw his shadow clear across the land. Across over 100,000 mi. And in that shadow everywhere, you'll find he left his blessings three." The Tamaranean princess lay down to sleep among a collection of stuffed animals under a pink spring apple tree, blossoming beautifully. Suddenly, Raven appeared again, using some subtle magic.
"Whoo boy, for sleeping, you sure take the cake! Come on, get up! "Starfire's spirit came from her body. "we got a longsome to make."
"Oh, it is the you, Miss Angel! How do you do?!" Starfire greeted as she grabbed the spirits of her hat, her Appleseed bag, and her book.
"I'm fine. And how be you?"
"I am the fine. I am just feeling-" Starfire stopped as she did a double take, looking at her material body. "Who is that sleeping in the evening dusk?"
"Why, that's just your husk, John. You're mortal husk."
"My husk?!" The alien princess gasped as she went to her body, putting her old pot cap over her heart. "You mean to say... that I have passed away?"
"Unfortunately, yes. Live to be around seventy or so.
"But-but I have the crops to harvest, seeds to sow." She started pleading.
"Now, now, Johnny. Down here on Earth, your work is through. But yonder... well, we need you Johnny. We really do. You think we have most all we please. But we ain't. We're kind of short on apple seeds." That got Starfire's attention.
"Well I be the feathered swan! I did not know! Where are we waiting for? Come on, let's go!" The two girls began to sing.
"We're wasting time so let's get going. Get them apple trees growing. There's a lot of work up there to do! Oh, there's a lot of work to do!" Raven, and Starfire soon faded out as the light of sunset overpower their ethereal bodies, apple blossoms raining down on the stage.
"And that was the story, of Johnny Appleseed. The end." Starfire woke back up from her astral projection, along with Raven teleporting back, that the two girls bowed, along with their friends, and curtains closed.
"That was... interesting." Lynn commented, unsure of how to take the tall tale.
"I thought it was great!" Lizzie cheered. "It was really optimistic!"
"Wait, something is happening." Steve quieted his friends as Jinx stepped out the curtain, dressed in colonial clothes.
"For this last Tall Tale, this won't be told from the 3rd, person, but rather 1st. There are multiple women who have held the name of Molly Pitcher. But the most recognized of them all is Mary Ludwig Hays in the Revolutionary Army. We have collected data from the National Women's History Museum website. This is her story." Jinx coughed.
"I was born on October 13, 1754. Historians argue over where I was born, but I was either born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania or New Jersey. I grew up in a small, modest household and my parents were German immigrants. It was unlikely that I would have learned to read or write during this time. When I was in my early twenties, I married a barber named William Hays. Hays decided to enlist in the 4th Pennsylvania Artillery and served in the Continental Army when the American Revolutionary War began."
"It was very common for soldier's wives to follow their husbands when they enlisted in the army. I decided to join my husband at the Continental Army camp where I often washed clothes and cared for the sick. Historians note that this is where the nickname "Molly Pitcher" could have originated from. "Molly" was a common nickname given to women that were named Mary. "Pitcher" represented the buckets women would carry for cleaning."
"On June 28, 1778, I enlisted to serve with Captain Francis Proctor's company in the Pennsylvania Artillery. Many of the men who knew me often described me as a "twenty-two-year-old illiterate pregnant woman who smoked and chewed tobacco and swore as well as any of the male soldiers." She gained popularity among the troops because of her hard work under fire and her bravery." Jinx silently chuckled as she whispered to herself, "Heck yeah."
"During the Battle of Monmouth on June 28, 1778, I allegedly solidified my legacy as an American hero. Historians report that about fifty soldiers died of thirst and dehydration that day. This meant that as many men died from heat exhaustion as they did from gunfire. I went back and forth into the battle to bring water to thirsty soldiers from a nearby spring. I stayed on the battlefield bringing water and caring for wounded soldiers until my own husband got hurt."
"When my husband was wounded during this battle, I made the decision to take his place at the cannon and began firing. After the battle, legend has it that George Washington asked about the courageous woman who was on the battlefield and promoted her to a non-commissioned officer. For this reason, I carried the nickname "Sergeant Molly."
"William Hays died in 1786 from his battle wounds. When he died, he left a large amount of land to me. After his death, I married John McCauley in 1793. He was also a veteran of the American Revolutionary War, but it is said that he spent my inheritance then disappeared sometime after 1807. I lived the rest of my life in Carlisle, Pennsylvania working as a general servant and a domestic."
"In 1822, the Pennsylvania State Legislature awarded me a pension of 40 per year for my service and heroism in the war. I died on January 22, 1832 and was buried in the Carlisle Old Graveyard. At my burial site, I am under the name "Molly McCauley," with a cannon and a statue of "Molly Pitcher" above my tombstone. Thank you." Everyone clap for the presentation, having found that bit of possible history rather interesting.
"Well, that's it for our collection of tall tales. We'll be back in a while, when we regale you stories, of Greek Mythology. Wait for it, kids."