First Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for December

I Saw Three Ships



The Mulberry Bush



The North Wind and the Robin



Dance a Baby

The Land of Counterpane

When I was sick and lay a-bed,

I had two pillows at my head,

And all my toys beside me lay,

To keep me happy all the day.


And sometimes for an hour or so

I watched my leaden soldiers go,

With different uniforms and drills,

Among the bed-clothes, through the hills;


And sometimes sent my ships in fleets

All up and down among the sheets;

Or brought my trees and houses out,

And planted cities all about.


I was the giant great and still

That sits upon the pillow-hill,

And sees before him, dale and plain,

The pleasant land of counterpane.

  Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Week 45 Attacked by the Fighting Trees from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum Horace Greeley as a Boy from Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans by Edward Eggleston The Quick-Tempered Turkey Gobbler from Among the Farmyard People by Clara Dillingham Pierson The Wishing Well from Fairy Tales Too Good To Miss—Up the Stairs by Lisa M. Ripperton Hannibal's Vow from On the Shores of the Great Sea by M. B. Synge The Adventure from The Mexican Twins by Lucy Fitch Perkins Saint Margaret of Scotland (Part 1 of 2) from Our Island Saints by Amy Steedman
Bunches of Grapes by Walter de la Mare 		Buckingham Palace by A. A. Milne
The Quarrelsome Kittens, Anonymous 		A Good Play by Robert Louis Stevenson Praying and Loving by Samuel Taylor Coleridge The Mist and All by Dixie Willson Hem by Christina Georgina Rossetti
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The Aesop for Children  by Milo Winter

The Tortoise and the Ducks

The Tortoise, you know, carries his house on his back. No matter how hard he tries, he cannot leave home. They say that Jupiter punished him so, because he was such a lazy stay-at-home that he would not go to Jupiter's wedding, even when especially invited.

After many years, Tortoise began to wish he had gone to that wedding. When he saw how gaily the birds flew about and how the Hare and the Chipmunk and all the other animals ran nimbly by, always eager to see everything there was to be seen, the Tortoise felt very sad and discontented. He wanted to see the world too, and there he was with a house on his back and little short legs that could hardly drag him along.

One day he met a pair of Ducks and told them all his trouble.

"We can help you to see the world," said the Ducks. "Take hold of this stick with your teeth and we will carry you far up in the air where you can see the whole countryside. But keep quiet or you will be sorry."

The Tortoise was very glad indeed. He seized the stick firmly with his teeth, the two Ducks took hold of it one at each end, and away they sailed up toward the clouds.


[Illustration]

Just then a Crow flew by. He was very much astonished at the strange sight and cried:

"This must surely be the King of Tortoises!"

"Why certainly—" began the Tortoise.

But as he opened his mouth to say these foolish words he lost his hold on the stick, and down he fell to the ground, where he was dashed to pieces on a rock.

Foolish curiosity and vanity often lead to misfortune.