First Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for September

Dickory Dock



London Bridge



Puss at Court



Ye Frog's Wooing

Where Go the Boats?

Dark brown is the river,

Golden is the sand.

It flows along for ever,

With trees on either hand.


Green leaves a-floating,

Castles of the foam,

Boats of mine a-boating—

Where will all come home?


On goes the river

And out past the mill,

Away down the valley,

Away down the hill.


Away down the river,

A hundred miles or more,

Other little children

Shall bring my boats ashore.

  Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Week 39 The Search for the Wicked Witch from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum The India-Rubber Man from Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans by Edward Eggleston A New Kind of Seed from Seed-Babies by Margaret Warner Morley Rattle-Rattle-Rattle and Chink-Chink-Chink from Fairy Tales Too Good To Miss—Up the Stairs by Lisa M. Ripperton Conquest of the East from On the Shores of the Great Sea by M. B. Synge The Blessing (Part 2 of 2) from The Mexican Twins by Lucy Fitch Perkins Saint Francis of Assisi (Part 1 of 2) from In God's Garden by Amy Steedman
The Ship by Gabriel Setoun 		Bad Sir Brian Botany by A. A. Milne
The Lost Doll by Charles Kingsley
The Swing by Robert Louis Stevenson 		Autumn Fires by Robert Louis Stevenson Some One by Walter de la Mare
Who Has Seen the Wind? by Christina Georgina Rossetti
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The Aesop for Children  by Milo Winter

The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse

A Town Mouse once visited a relative who lived in the country. For lunch the Country Mouse served wheat stalks, roots, and acorns, with a dash of cold water for drink. The Town Mouse ate very sparingly, nibbling a little of this and a little of that, and by her manner making it very plain that she ate the simple food only to be polite.


[Illustration]

After the meal the friends had a long talk, or rather the Town Mouse talked about her life in the city while the Country Mouse listened. They then went to bed in a cozy nest in the hedgerow and slept in quiet and comfort until morning. In her sleep the Country Mouse dreamed she was a Town Mouse with all the luxuries and delights of city life that her friend had described for her. So the next day when the Town Mouse asked the Country Mouse to go home with her to the city, she gladly said yes.

When they reached the mansion in which the Town Mouse lived, they found on the table in the dining room the leavings of a very fine banquet. There were sweetmeats and jellies, pastries, delicious cheeses, indeed, the most tempting foods that a Mouse can imagine. But just as the Country Mouse was about to nibble a dainty bit of pastry, she heard a Cat mew loudly and scratch at the door. In great fear the Mice scurried to a hiding place, where they lay quite still for a long time, hardly daring to breathe. When at last they ventured back to the feast, the door opened suddenly and in came the servants to clear the table, followed by the House Dog.


[Illustration]

The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse

The Country Mouse stopped in the Town Mouse's den only long enough to pick up her carpet bag and umbrella.

"You may have luxuries and dainties that I have not," she said as she hurried away, "but I prefer my plain food and simple life in the country with the peace and security that go with it."

Poverty with security is better than plenty in the midst of fear and uncertainty.