Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for December


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 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
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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.