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 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 46 The Dainty China Country from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum Horace Greeley Learning To Print from Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans by Edward Eggleston The Bragging Peacock from Among the Farmyard People by Clara Dillingham Pierson The Table, the Ass, and the Stick from Fairy Tales Too Good To Miss—Up the Stairs by Lisa M. Ripperton The Adventures of Hannibal from On the Shores of the Great Sea by M. B. Synge While They Were Gone from The Mexican Twins by Lucy Fitch Perkins Saint Margaret of Scotland (Part 2 of 2) from Our Island Saints by Amy Steedman
Three Little Maidens, Anonymous 		Puppy and I by A. A. Milne
Windy Nights by Robert Louis Stevenson 		The Land of Story-Books by Robert Louis Stevenson Gaelic Lullaby, Anonymous The Horseman by Walter de la Mare If Hope Grew on a Bush by Christina Georgina Rossetti
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A Roundabout Turn  by Robert H. Charles

A Roundabout Turn


[Illustration]

A Toad that lived on Albury Heath

Wanted to see the World.


[Illustration]

"It isn't that I dislike the Heath,

It's a perfectly charming Heath, of course—"


[Illustration]

"All this heather, and all this gorse,

All this bracken to walk beneath,

With its feathery fronds to the sky uncurled—

It's as jolly a Heath as ever was found."


[Illustration]

"But it's flat, and the World, they say, is round.

Yes, fancy," he said, "it's round, they tell me,

And wouldn't I like to go and see!"


[Illustration]

"But there, it's a long way down the road

For a fellow that walks as slow as a Toad."


[Illustration]

"If I had a horse, I'd go," said he,

"If only I had a horse!

Who's got a horse," he cried, "to sell me?"


[Illustration]

Well, nobody had, you see.


[Illustration]

But horses came to the Heath one day,

Mettlesome steeds in brave array,

With prancing legs and staring eyes,

And crimson saddles that fall and rise

As round the galloping squadron flies,

And tents, and swings and cokernut shies,

And a hoop-la stall with many a prize,

And races, and a band, and cheering.


[Illustration]

"Hark!" said the Toad, "what's this I'm hearing?

It must be the World arrived, by the sound;

"Now I'll see if it's really round!"


[Illustration]

Off he crawled to the thick of things,

And the crowds made crawling rather tiring.

"Dear me!" he said, "I wish I'd wings!

If this is the World," said he, perspiring,

"It's inconveniently full of Feet."


[Illustration]

When a sudden voice said, "Look—how sweet!

Mummy, a toad! Let's give him a treat."


[Illustration]

"It's not very safe for him here on the ground,

So I'll put him up—"


[Illustration]

"—on the merry-go-round!"


[Illustration]

And before the Toad could answer, the floor began to slide,

The horses started prancing, and the riders settled to ride,

And they all moved faster, and the band began to play,

And away round he went with them, away and away and away.

Hooray! . . . . .


[Illustration]

So the Toad rode the Roundabout

Round and round and round;

No one minded him, he sat without a sound;

He rather liked the movement, he rather liked the tune,

He just rode the Roundabout

All the afternoon.


[Illustration]

When the time to pay came,

What did he do?

"Tuppence a ride! Tuppence a ride! How much for you?"

Some had ridden for one ride, some had ridden for two—

"Seventy-nine,"  the Toad cried;

The boy said, "Coo!"


[Illustration]

"But never you mind," the Toad replied,

"Here's an I.O.U."


[Illustration]

"And now," he said, "I'll go, thanks.

I want to get home to tea."


[Illustration]

"Another for nothing? No,  thanks,

Not  any more for me!"


[Illustration]

Home, holding the grasses,

Crawling a crooked road,


[Illustration]

Slowly there passes


[Illustration]

A very unsteady


[Illustration]

Toad.


[Illustration]

"Well, and what have you found, dear?

And what have you seen and heard?"


[Illustration]

"Is the World really round, dear?"

"Round?"  he said, "My word!

Round?"  said he; "you should feel it spin!

Roundest place I ever was in!—

Round?" he chuckled, "it's that!

But it's rather," he said with a knowing wink—

"It's rather a giddy  place, I think."


[Illustration]

"Give me a drop of the dew to drink,

And give me the Heath;

it's flat!"


[Illustration]