It was Ar-bor Day in the Mos-sy Hill School, Johnny Little-john had to speak a piece that had some-thing to do with trees. He thought it would be a good plan to say some-thing about the little cherry tree that Washington spoiled with his hatch-et, when he was a little boy. This is what he said:

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He had a hatch-et—little George—
  A hatch-et bright and new,
And sharp enough to cut a stick—
  A little stick—in two.

He hacked and whacked and whacked and hacked,
  This sturd-y little man;
He hacked a log and hacked a fence,
  As round about he ran.

He hacked his father’s cher-ry tree
  And made an ug-ly spot;
The bark was soft, the hatch-et sharp,
  And little George forgot.

You know the rest. The father frowned
  And asked the rea-son why;
You know the good old story runs
  He could not tell a lie.

The boy that chopped that cher-ry tree
  Soon grew to be a youth;
At work and books he hacked away,
  And still he told the truth:

The youth became a fa-mous man,
  Above six feet in height,
And when he had good work to do
  He hacked with all his might.

He fought the ar-mies that the king
  Had sent across the sea;
He bat-tled up and down the land
  To set his country free.

For seven long years he, hacked and whacked
  With all his might and main
Until the Brit-ish sailed away
  And did not come again.

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