The Acorn-Planter, Jack London [free ebook reader .txt] 📗

Heigh hi, heigh ho,
And found this mighty forest
An hour or so ago.

{Sun Man}
(Glancing about at the slain and at the giant
forest.)
Good the day, good the deed, and good this
California land.

{Red Cloud}
Not with these eyes, but with other eyes in my
lives before, have I beheld you. You are the
Sun Man.

(The attention of all is drawn to Red
Cloud, and they group about him and the
Sun Man.)

{Sun Man}
Call me White Man. Though in truth we
follow the sun. All our lives have we followed
the sunset sun, as our fathers followed it before
us.

{Red Cloud}
And you slay us with the thunder in your hand.
You slay us because we slew your brothers.

{Sun Man}
(Nodding to Red Cloud and addressing
his own followers)
You see, it was no mistake. He confesses it.
Other white men have they slain.

{Red Cloud}
There will come a day when men will not slay
men and when all men will be brothers. And in
that day all men will plant acorns.

{Sun Man}
You speak well, brother.

{Red Cloud}
Ever was I for peace, but in war I did not command.
Ever I sought the secrets of the growing
things, the times and seasons for planting. Ever
I planted acorns, making two black oak trees
grow where one grew before. And now all is
ended. Oh my black oak acorns! My black
oak acorns! Who will plant them now?

{Sun Man}
Be of good cheer. We, too, are planters.
Rich is your land here. Not from poor soil can
such trees sprout heavenward. We will plant
many seeds and grow mighty harvests.

{Red Cloud}
I planted the short acorns in the valley. I
planted the long acorns in the valley. I made
food for life.

{Sun Man}
You planted well, brother, but not well enough.
It is for that reason that you pass. Your fat
valley grows food but for a handful of men. We
shall plant your fat valley and grow food for ten
thousand men.

{Red Cloud}
Ever I counseled peace and planting.

{Sun Man}
Some day all men will counsel peace. No
man will slay his fellow. All men will plant.

{Red Cloud}
But before that day you will slay, as you have
this day slain us?

{Sun Man}
You killed our brothers first. Blood-debts must
be paid. It is man's way upon the earth. But
more, O brother! We follow the sunset sun, and
the way before us is red with war. The way
behind us is white with peace. Ever, before
us, we make room for life. Ever we slay the
squalling crawling things of the wild. Ever we
clear the land and destroy the weeds that block
the way of life for the seeds we plant. We are
many, and many are our brothers that come after
along the way of peace we blaze. Where you
make two black oaks grow in the place of one,
we make an hundred. And where we make one
grow, our brothers who come after make an
hundred hundred.

{Red Cloud}
Truly are you the Sun Man. We knew about
you of old time. Our old men knew and sang of
you:

White and shining was the Sun Man,
Blue his eyes were as the sky-blue,
Bright his hair was as dry grass is,
Warm his eyes were as the sun is,
Fruit and flower were in his glances,
All he looked on grew and sprouted,
Where his glance fell grasses seeded,
Where his feet fell sprang upstarting
Buckeye woods and hazel thickets,
Berry bushes, manzanita,
Till his pathway was a garden,
Flowing after like a river
Laughing into bud and blossom.


SONG OF THE PIONEERS

{Sun Men}
Our brothers follow on the trail we blaze.
Where howled the wolf and ached the naked plain
Spring bounteous harvests at our brothers' hands;
In place of war's alarums, peaceful days;
Above the warrior's grave the golden grain
Turns deserts grim and stark to laughing lands.

{Sun Man}
We cleared New England's flinty slopes and plowed
Her rocky fields to fairness in the sun,
But fared we westward always for we sought
A land of golden richness and we knew
The land was waiting on the sunset trail.
Where we found forest we left fertile fields,
We bridled rivers wild to grind our corn,
The deer-paths turned to roadways at our heels,
Our axes felled the trees that bridged the streams,
And fenced the meadow pastures for our kine.

{Sun Men}
Our brothers follow on the trail we blaze;
Where howled the wolf and ached the naked plain
Spring bounteous harvests at our brothers' hands;
In place of war's alarums, peaceful days;
Above the warrior's grave the golden grain
Turns deserts grim and stark to laughing lands.

{Sun Man}
Beyond the Mississippi still we fared,
And rested weary by the River Platte
Until the young grass velveted the Plains,
Then yoked again our oxen to the trail
That ever led us west to farthest west.
Our women toiled beside us, and our young,
And helped to break the soil and plant the corn,
And fought beside us in the battle front
To fight of arrow, whine of bullet, when
We chained our circled wagons wheel to wheel.

{Sun Men}
Our brothers follow on the trail we blaze;
Where howled the wolf and ached the naked plain
Spring bounteous harvests at our brothers hands;
In place of war's alarums, peaceful days;
Above the warrior's grave the golden grain
Turns deserts grim and stark to laughing lands.

{Sun Man}
The rivers sank beneath the desert sand,
The tall pines dwarfed to sage-brush, and the grass
Grew sparse and bitter in the alkali,
But fared we always toward the setting sun.
Our oxen famished till the last one died
And our great wagons rested in the snow.
We climbed the high Sierras and looked down
From winter bleak upon the land we sought,
A sunny land, a rich and fruitful land,
The warm and golden California land.

{Sun Men}
Our brothers follow on the trail we blaze;
Where howled the wolf and ached the naked plain
Spring bounteous harvests at our brothers' hands;
In place of war's alarums, peaceful days;
Above the warrior's grave the golden grain
Turns deserts grim and stark to laughing lands.

(The hillside begins to darken.)

{Red Cloud}
(Faintly.)

The darkness is upon me. You are acorn-