I’m after a 1950/60 American children’s book of short stories. Hard cover with a bit of a religious bent. Featured Afro American people in some stories. All heavy on doing the right thing and hugely moralistic. One story was about a gardener potting up plants and another was about Johnny Appleseed spreading apple seeds across the USA.
Hope you can help. Thank you.
There are references to ‘Johnny Appleseed’ short stories in the following books, and hopefully one of the titles may sound familiar (there isn’t one which jumps out as an immediate fit to the description)…
‘Holiday Roundup’ by Frances Cavanah, Lucile Pannell
Pub 1950, 1968
https://archive.org/details/holidayroundup00cava/mode/1up?q=Appleseed
Contains a story about a man planting fig trees, and another about Martin Luther King. The tales behind the National Days of America.
‘A Child’s Book of Country Stories” by Ada Skinner, Eleanor Skinner
Orig. Pub 1925, linked edition from 1992
https://archive.org/details/childsbookofcoun0000skin/mode/1up?q=Appleseed
‘Yankee Doodle’s Cousins’ by Anne Malcolmson
Pub. 1941
https://archive.org/details/yankeedoodlescou0000malc/mode/1up
Twenty-seven stories for eight- to thirteen-year-olds, about American folk figures such as Johnny Appleseed, Paul Bunyan and John Henry. Contents are… The east: John Darling — The gift of Saint Nicholas — Captain Kidd –Joe Magarac — The ghost of dark hollow run — King coal — Icabod Paddock — Stormalong ; The south: Ole massa and his chillun — Mule humans — Blackbeard — John Henry — Tony Beaver ; The Mississippi Valley: Johnny Appleseed — Mike Fink — Dan’l Boone — Davy Crockett — The big bear of Arkansas — Pirate Jean Lafffite — Febold Feboldson ; The west: Kemp Morgan — The white mustang — The golden cities of Cibola — Pecos Bill — Pecos Bill and his bouncing bride — Ol’ Paul Bunyon — How Paul Bonjean became Paul Bunyon — Ol’ Paul’s camp on the Big Onion River — How Ol’ Paul changed the map of America
‘Uncle Sam’s story book’ (adventures of yesterday’s boys and girls) by Wilhelmina Harper, pictured by Grace Paull. McKay 1944 144p
Contents: Family who never had a clock, by H. Woodward; Deborah travels alone, by A. Dalgliesh; Blue rocking chair’s story, by C. S. Bailey; Chooky, by L. Wallower; Bud and Little Cousin, by WB. Garner; Johnny and_his mule, by E. Credle; Christmas! Christmas! by F. C. Sayers; Sah-Mee and the rabbit hunt, by M. H. Fellows; Little bear goes to school, by BE. R. Sickels; Oh Susannah, by R. and R. Holberg; Log cabin children, by M, D. Horn; Cowboy Tommy, by S. Tousey; On to Oregon, by M. Austin; Sarah Deborah’s day begins, by C. Jackson
‘School Bell Rings’ by Evelyn Ray Sickels
Pub 1942
Stories about how childen went to school in early America
‘Children of the Handcrafts’ by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey
Pub 1935, reprinted several times including 1957
https://archive.org/details/childrenofhandcr0000caro/mode/1up
Includes ‘The Garden Mercy Planted’