First Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for August

Ding Dong Bell



Hush-a-by Baby



The Old Woman of Norwich



The Scare-Crow

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 51 Vixen, the Naughty Reindeer from The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by Amelia C. Houghton Nicholas Goes Down the Chimney from The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by Amelia C. Houghton The Little Tree That Longed for Other Leaves from Good Stories for Great Holidays by Frances Jenkins Olcott Why the Chimes Rang from Fairy Tales Too Good To Miss—Up the Stairs by Lisa M. Ripperton The First Christmas Tree from The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by Amelia C. Houghton A Present for Nicholas from The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by Amelia C. Houghton Holly Gets Its Name from The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by Amelia C. Houghton
A Christmas Carol by Christina Georgina Rossetti Kriss Kringle by Thomas Bailey Aldrich
Santa Claus, Anonymous 		A Christmas Song by Phillips Brooks An Old English Carol, Anonymous The Waits by Margaret Deland A Christmas Hymn by Christina Georgina Rossetti
First row Previous row          Next row
The Aesop for Children  by Milo Winter

The Ass and the Load of Salt

A Merchant, driving his Ass homeward from the seashore with a heavy load of salt, came to a river crossed by a shallow ford. They had crossed this river many times before without accident, but this time the Ass slipped and fell when halfway over. And when the Merchant at last got him to his feet, much of the salt had melted away. Delighted to find how much lighter his burden had become, the Ass finished the journey very gayly.

Next day the Merchant went for another load of salt. On the way home the Ass, remembering what had happened at the ford, purposely let himself fall into the water, and again got rid of most of his burden.

The angry Merchant immediately turned about and drove the Ass back to the seashore, where he loaded him with two great baskets of sponges. At the ford the Ass again tumbled over; but when he had scrambled to his feet, it was a very disconsolate Ass that dragged himself homeward under a load ten times heavier than before.

The same measures will not suit all circumstances.


[Illustration]

The Ass and the Load of Salt