Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet



Songs for June


Wynken, Blynken, and Nod

Wynken, Blynken, and Nod one night

Sailed off in a wooden shoe—

Sailed on a river of crystal light,

Into a sea of dew.

"Where are you going, and what do you wish?"

The old moon asked the three.

"We have come to fish for the herring-fish

That live in this beautiful sea;

Nets of silver and gold have we!"

Said Wynken,

Blynken,

And Nod.


The old moon laughed and sang a song,

As they rocked in the wooden shoe,

And the wind that sped them all night long

Ruffled the waves of dew.

The little stars were the herring-fish

That lived in the beautiful sea—

"Now cast your nets wherever you wish,—

Never afeard are we!"

So cried the stars to the fishermen three:

Wynken,

Blynken,

And Nod.


All night long their nets they threw

To the stars in the twinkling foam,—

Then down from the skies came the wooden shoe,

Bringing the fishermen home;

'Twas all so pretty a sail, it seemed

As if it could not be,

And some folks thought 'twas a dream they'd dreamed

Of sailing that beautiful sea—

But I shall name you the fishermen three:

Wynken,

Blynken,

And Nod.


Wynken and Blynken are two little eyes,

And Nod is a little head,

And the wooden shoe that sailed the skies

Is a wee one's trundle-bed.

So shut your eyes while Mother sings

Of wonderful sights that be,

And you shall see the beautiful things

As you rock in the misty sea,

Where the old shoe rocked the fishermen three—

Wynken,

Blynken,

And Nod.



  Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Week 13 The Inn of the Red Craw-Fish from Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi Sir Philip Sidney from Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin An Old Friend in a New Home from The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton Burgess The Girl Who Sat by the Ashes from The Girl Who Sat by the Ashes by Padraic Colum Marcus Aurelius from The Discovery of New Worlds by M. B. Synge If You Don't Like Conversation, Skip This Chapter (Part 1 of 3) from Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher Gideon and His Brave Three Hundred (Part 1 of 2) from Hurlbut's Story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut
Homes in Iceland (Part 2 of 3) from Viking Tales by Jennie Hall Holly Trees and Holly Bushes (Part 2 of 2) from Outdoor Visits by Edith M. Patch The Bundle of Sticks from The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter I Find a Great Store of Things from Robinson Crusoe Written Anew for Children by James Baldwin Perseus and Andromeda from A Child's Book of Myths and Enchantment Tales by Margaret Evans Price Reddy Fox Is Very Miserable from The Adventures of Prickly Porky by Thornton Burgess The Castaway Story from The Sandman: His Ship Stories by Willliam J. Hopkins
Pippa's Song by Robert Browning
Windy Nights by Robert Louis Stevenson
  Margery Brown by Kate Greenaway Jim Jay by Walter de la Mare Violets by John Moultrie Little Blue Pigeon by Eugene Field
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The Aesop for Children  by Milo Winter

The Lion and the Mouse

A Lion lay asleep in the forest, his great head resting on his paws. A timid little Mouse came upon him unexpectedly, and in her fright and haste to get away, ran across the Lion's nose. Roused from his nap, the Lion laid his huge paw angrily on the tiny creature to kill her.

"Spare me!" begged the poor Mouse. "Please let me go and some day I will surely repay you."

The Lion was much amused to think that a Mouse could ever help him. But he was generous and finally let the Mouse go.

Some days later, while stalking his prey in the forest, the Lion was caught in the toils of a hunter's net. Unable to free himself, he filled the forest with his angry roaring. The Mouse knew the voice and quickly found the Lion struggling in the net. Running to one of the great ropes that bound him, she gnawed it until it parted, and soon the Lion was free.


[Illustration]

"You laughed when I said I would repay you," said the Mouse. "Now you see that even a Mouse can help a Lion."

A kindness is never wasted.