First Grade Read Aloud Banquet



Songs for September

Dickory Dock



London Bridge



Puss at Court



Ye Frog's Wooing




The Duel

The gingham dog and the calico cat

Side by side on the table sat;

'Twas half-past twelve, and (what do you think!)

Nor one nor t'other had slept a wink!

The old Dutch clock and the Chinese plate

Appeared to know as sure as fate

There was going to be a terrible spat.

(I wasn't there; I simply state

What was told to me by the Chinese plate!)


The gingham dog went "bow-wow-wow!"

And the calico cat replied "mee-ow!"

The air was littered, an hour or so,

With bits of gingham and calico,

While the old Dutch clock in the chimney-place

Up with its hands before its face,

For it always dreaded a family row!

(Now mind: I'm only telling you

What the old Dutch clock declares is true!)


The Chinese plate looked very blue,

And wailed, "Oh, dear! what shall we do!"

But the gingham dog and the calico cat

Wallowed this way and tumbled that,

Employing every tooth and claw

In the awfullest way you ever saw—

And, oh! how the gingham and calico flew!

(Don't fancy I exaggerate—

I got my news from the Chinese plate!)


Next morning where the two had sat

They found no trace of the dog or cat;

And some folks think unto this day

That burglars stole the pair away!

But the truth about the cat and the pup

Is this: They ate each other up!

Now what do you really think of that!

(The old Dutch clock it told me so,

And that is how I came to know.)


  Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Week 20 The Black Prince from The Story of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting Marion's Tower from Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans by Edward Eggleston The Crayfish Mother from Among the Pond People by Clara Dillingham Pierson
Two Little Crayfishes Quarrel from Among the Pond People by Clara Dillingham Pierson
The Ragged Pedlar from Fairy Tales Too Good To Miss—Around the Fire by Lisa M. Ripperton The Fall of Tyre from On the Shores of the Great Sea by M. B. Synge The Prize from The Filipino Twins by Lucy Fitch Perkins Saint Augustine of Canterbury from In God's Garden by Amy Steedman
The Light-Hearted Fairy, Anonymous
Jonathan Jo by A. A. Milne
Grasshopper Green, Anonymous
Marching Song by Robert Louis Stevenson The City Child by Alfred Lord Tennyson Rock-a-Bye, Baby, Mother Goose A Frisky Lamb by Christina Georgina Rossetti
First row Previous row          Next row Last row
The Aesop for Children  by Milo Winter

The Milkmaid and Her Pail

A Milkmaid had been out to milk the cows and was returning from the field with the shining milk pail balanced nicely on her head. As she walked along, her pretty head was busy with plans for the days to come.

"This good, rich milk," she reused, "will give me plenty of cream to churn. The butter I make I will take to market, and with the money I get for it I will buy a lot of eggs for hatching. How nice it will be when they are all hatched and the yard is full of fine young chicks. Then when May day comes I will sell them, and with the money I'll buy a lovely new dress to wear to the fair. All the young men will look at me. They will come and try to make love to me,—but I shall very quickly send them about their business!"

As she thought of how she would settle that matter, she tossed her head scornfully, and down fell the pail of milk to the ground. And all the milk flowed out, and with it vanished butter and eggs and chicks and new dress and all the milkmaid's pride.

Do not count your chickens before they are hatched.


[Illustration]