Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for December

Tired Tim

Poor Tired Tim! It's sad for him.
He lags the long bright morning through,
Ever so tired of nothing to do;
He moons and mopes the livelong day,
Nothing to think about, nothing to say;
Up to bed with his candle to creep,
Too tired to yawn, too tired to sleep:
Poor Tired Tim! It's sad for him.

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Week 12	Pinocchio Is Taken In by the Fox and the Cat from Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi	The Miller of the Dee from Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin	Peter Learns Something He Hadn't Guessed from The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton Burgess	How Maid-alone Ceased Being a Goose-herd from The Girl Who Sat by the Ashes by Padraic Colum	The Destruction of Pompeii from The Discovery of New Worlds by M. B. Synge	What Grade Is Betsy? (Part 2 of 2) from Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher	How a Woman Won a Great Victory from Hurlbut's Story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut
	Homes in Iceland (Part 1 of 3) from Viking Tales by Jennie Hall	Red Oak and Live Oak (Part 1 of 2) from Outdoor Visits by Edith M. Patch	The Fox and the Grapes from The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter	I Have a Strange Visitor from Robinson Crusoe Written Anew for Children by James Baldwin	Jason and the Golden Fleece from A Child's Book of Myths and Enchantment Tales by Margaret Evans Price	What Reddy Fox Saw and Did from The Adventures of Prickly Porky by Thornton Burgess	The Cape Horn Story from The Sandman: His Ship Stories by Willliam J. Hopkins
	The Sing-Away Bird by Lucy Larcom	Dandelions by Helen Gray Cone		Ready for Duty by Anna B. Warner	Wanderers by Walter de la Mare	March by Lucy Larcom	Seven Times One by Jean Ingelow

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.