First Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for December

I Saw Three Ships



The Mulberry Bush



The North Wind and the Robin



Dance a Baby

Five Eyes

In Hans' old Mill his three black cats

Watch the bins for the thieving rats.

Whisker and claw, they crouch in the night,

Their five eyes smouldering green and bright:

Squeaks from the flour sacks, squeaks from where

The cold wind stirs on the empty stair,

Squeaking and scampering, everywhere.

Then down they pounce, now in, now out,

At whisking tail, and sniffing snout;

While lean old Hans he snores away

Till peep of light at break of day;

Then up he climbs to his creaking mill,

Out come his cats all grey with meal—

Jekkel, and Jessup, and one-eyed Jill.

  Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Week 36 The Queen of the Field Mice from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum Some Boys Who Became Authors from Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans by Edward Eggleston Cradles from Seed-Babies by Margaret Warner Morley The Five Remarkable Brothers from Fairy Tales Too Good To Miss—Around the Fire by Lisa M. Ripperton Coriolanus from On the Shores of the Great Sea by M. B. Synge Twenty Years After from The Irish Twins by Lucy Fitch Perkins What Strong Drink Brought to Aaron's Sons from Hurlbut's Story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut
Bow-Wow-Wow, Anonymous 		The Invaders by A. A. Milne
Elf and Dormouse by Oliver Herford 		Keepsake Mill by Robert Louis Stevenson Thank You, Pretty Cow by Jane Taylor Holding Hands by Lenore M. Link Fly Away by Christina Georgina Rossetti
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The Aesop for Children  by Milo Winter

Belling the Cat

The mice once called a meeting to decide on a plan to free themselves of their enemy, the Cat. At least they wished to find some way of knowing when she was coming, so they might have time to run away. Indeed, something had to be done, for they lived in such constant fear of her claws that they hardly dared stir from their dens by night or day.

Many plans were discussed, but none of them was thought good enough. At last a very young Mouse got up and said:

"I have a plan that seems very simple, but I know it will be successful. All we have to do is to hang a bell about the Cat's neck. When we hear the bell ringing we will know immediately that our enemy is coming."

All the Mice were much surprised that they had not thought of such a plan before. But in the midst of the rejoicing over their good fortune, an old Mouse arose and said:

"I will say that the plan of the young Mouse is very good. But let me ask one question Who will bell the Cat?"

It is one thing to say that something should be done, but quite a different matter to do it.


[Illustration]