First Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for November

Aiken Drum



King Cole



The Old Man in Leather



Ye Fairy Ship

The Land of Story-Books

At evening when the lamp is lit,

Around the fire my parents sit;

They sit at home and talk and sing,

And do not play at anything.


Now, with my little gun, I crawl

All in the dark along the wall,

And follow round the forest track

Away behind the sofa back.


There, in the night, where none can spy,

All in my hunter's camp I lie,

And play at books that I have read

Till it is time to go to bed.


These are the hills, these are the woods,

These are my starry solitudes;

And there the river by whose brink

The roaring lions come to drink.


I see the others far away

As if in firelit camp they lay,

And I, like to an Indian scout,

Around their party prowled about.


So when my nurse comes in for me,

Home I return across the sea,

And go to bed with backward looks

At my dear land of Story-Books.

  Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Week 17 The Bridge of the Apes from The Story of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting Washington's Christmas Gift from Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans by Edward Eggleston The Good Little Cranes Who Were Bad from Among the Pond People by Clara Dillingham Pierson The Tongue-Cut Sparrow from Fairy Tales Too Good To Miss—Up the Stairs by Lisa M. Ripperton The Siege of Troy from On the Shores of the Great Sea by M. B. Synge The Typhoon from The Filipino Twins by Lucy Fitch Perkins Jacob's Wonderful Dream from Hurlbut's Story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut
Sing, Little Bird, Anonymous The Island by A. A. Milne
I Would Like You for a Comrade by Judge Parry 		Nest Eggs by Robert Louis Stevenson Little May by Emily Huntington Miller Boats Sail on the Rivers by Christina Georgina Rossetti Hurt No Living Thing by Christina Georgina Rossetti
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The Aesop for Children  by Milo Winter

The Frogs Who Wished for a King

The Frogs were tired of governing themselves. They had so much freedom that it had spoiled them, and they did nothing but sit around croaking in a bored manner and wishing for a government that could entertain them with the pomp and display of royalty, and rule them in a way to make them know they were being ruled. No milk and water government for them, they declared. So they sent a petition to Jupiter asking for a king.

Jupiter saw what simple and foolish creatures they were, but to keep them quiet and make them think they had a king he threw down a huge log, which fell into the water with a great splash. The Frogs hid themselves among the reeds and grasses, thinking the new king to be some fearful giant. But they soon discovered how tame and peaceable King Log was. In a short time the younger Frogs were using him for a diving platform, while the older Frogs made him a meeting place, where they complained loudly to Jupiter about the government.

To teach the Frogs a lesson the ruler of the gods now sent a Crane to be king of Frogland. The Crane proved to be a very different sort of king from old King Log. He gobbled up the poor Frogs right and left and they soon saw what fools they had been. In mournful croaks they begged Jupiter to take away the cruel tyrant before they should all be destroyed.


[Illustration]

"How now!" cried Jupiter "Are you not yet content? You have what you asked for and so you have only yourselves to blame for your misfortunes."

Be sure you can better your condition before you seek to change.