Grandma’s Seagulls

By Margaret Swapp

My grandma loves the white seagulls
That fly about her farm.
She says they’re strong and friendly,
And they do nobody harm.
She told me what her grandma said
A long, long time ago,
About the early pioneers
Who tried to make crops grow.

They cleared the land of weeds and sage,
And planted seeds and sod;
They built a cabin out of logs,
And thanked the Lord, their God.
Then crickets cam, and grandma says
They swarmed upon the fields they passed.
They ate the wheat and corn and hay,
And even trees, and coarse brown grass.

And grandma says her grandma said
They fought with fire and sticks and brooms,
To beat the crickets from the land,
And save their crops for winter food.
And then they just knelt down and prayed,
When nothing helped and hope was gone;
Then suddenly they heard a sound
High in the sky; a seagull’s song!

Not musical, like other birds,
More like a harsh, shrill cry, she said.
And then the seagulls settled down,
And there upon the crickets fed.
So grandma loves the white seagulls;
She says to her they always tell
The story of our father’s love,
And how He guards His children well.

(1960)