Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for May


Five Eyes

In Hans' old Mill his three black cats

Watch the bins for the thieving rats.

Whisker and claw, they crouch in the night,

Their five eyes smouldering green and bright:

Squeaks from the flour sacks, squeaks from where

The cold wind stirs on the empty stair,

Squeaking and scampering, everywhere.

Then down they pounce, now in, now out,

At whisking tail, and sniffing snout;

While lean old Hans he snores away

Till peep of light at break of day;

Then up he climbs to his creaking mill,

Out come his cats all grey with meal—

Jekkel, and Jessup, and one-eyed Jill.

  Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Week 11 Fire-Eater Pardons Pinocchio from Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi Other Wise Men of Gotham from Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin Chippy, Sweetvoice, and Dotty from The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton Burgess The King's Son Goes Seeking from The Girl Who Sat by the Ashes by Padraic Colum The Great Fire in Rome from The Discovery of New Worlds by M. B. Synge What Grade Is Betsy? (Part 1 of 2) from Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher Saint Patrick (Part 2 of 2) from Our Island Saints by Amy Steedman
King Harald Goes West-Over-Seas from Viking Tales by Jennie Hall Ladybird Flies Away from Outdoor Visits by Edith M. Patch The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse from The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter I Learn That I Am on an Island from Robinson Crusoe Written Anew for Children by James Baldwin The Pygmies and the Cranes from A Child's Book of Myths and Enchantment Tales by Margaret Evans Price What Happened to Reddy Fox from The Adventures of Prickly Porky by Thornton Burgess The Chanty Story from The Sandman: His Ship Stories by Willliam J. Hopkins
London Wind by Laurence Alma-Tadema
The Rock-a-By Lady by Eugene Field 		  The Wise Fairy by Alice Cary The Horseman by Walter de la Mare Lines Written in Early Spring by William Wordsworth When Early March Seems Middle May by James Whitcomb Riley
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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