Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for December

My Shadow

I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,

And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.

He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head;

And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed.

The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow—

Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow;

For he sometimes shoots up taller like an india-rubber ball,

And he sometimes gets so little that there's none of him at all.

He hasn't got a notion of how children ought to play,

And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way.

He stays so close beside me, he's a coward, you can see;

I'd think shame to stick to nursie as that shadow sticks to me!

One morning, very early, before the sun was up,

I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup;

But my lazy little shadow, like an arrant sleepy-head,

Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Week 10	The Puppets Recognize Their Brother Pinocchio from Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi	Three Men of Gotham from Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin	Jenny Has a Good Word for Some Sparrows from The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton Burgess	What the Geese Talked Of from The Girl Who Sat by the Ashes by Padraic Colum	The Tragedy of Nero from The Discovery of New Worlds by M. B. Synge	Betsy Goes to School (Part 2 of 2) from Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher	Saint Patrick (Part 1 of 2) from Our Island Saints by Amy Steedman
	King Harald's Wedding from Viking Tales by Jennie Hall	A Bluebird's Song (Part 3 of 3) from Outdoor Visits by Edith M. Patch	The Kid and the Wolf from The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter	I Carry Some Things Ashore from Robinson Crusoe Written Anew for Children by James Baldwin	Atalanta and Hippomenes from A Child's Book of Myths and Enchantment Tales by Margaret Evans Price	Unc' Billy Possum Tells Jimmy Skunk a Secret from The Adventures of Prickly Porky by Thornton Burgess	The Pirate Story from The Sandman: His Ship Stories by Willliam J. Hopkins
	The Sea Princess, Anonymous	Violets by Dinah Maria Mulock		Little Billee by William Makepeace Thackeray	Up and Down by Walter de la Mare	March by Celia Thaxter	The Lamb by William Blake

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.

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.