Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for June


The Duel

The gingham dog and the calico cat

Side by side on the table sat;

'Twas half-past twelve, and (what do you think!)

Nor one nor t'other had slept a wink!

The old Dutch clock and the Chinese plate

Appeared to know as sure as fate

There was going to be a terrible spat.

(I wasn't there; I simply state

What was told to me by the Chinese plate!)


The gingham dog went "bow-wow-wow!"

And the calico cat replied "mee-ow!"

The air was littered, an hour or so,

With bits of gingham and calico,

While the old Dutch clock in the chimney-place

Up with its hands before its face,

For it always dreaded a family row!

(Now mind: I'm only telling you

What the old Dutch clock declares is true!)


The Chinese plate looked very blue,

And wailed, "Oh, dear! what shall we do!"

But the gingham dog and the calico cat

Wallowed this way and tumbled that,

Employing every tooth and claw

In the awfullest way you ever saw—

And, oh! how the gingham and calico flew!

(Don't fancy I exaggerate—

I got my news from the Chinese plate!)


Next morning where the two had sat

They found no trace of the dog or cat;

And some folks think unto this day

That burglars stole the pair away!

But the truth about the cat and the pup

Is this: They ate each other up!

Now what do you really think of that!

(The old Dutch clock it told me so,

And that is how I came to know.)

  Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Week 14 Pinocchio Falls amongst Assassins from Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi Ungrateful Soldier from Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin The Watchman of the Old Orchard from The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton Burgess The Ball in the King's Castle from The Girl Who Sat by the Ashes by Padraic Colum Decline of the Roman Empire from The Discovery of New Worlds by M. B. Synge If You Don't Like Conversation, Skip This Chapter (Part 2 of 3) from Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher Gideon and His Brave Three Hundred (Part 2 of 2) from Hurlbut's Story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut
Homes in Iceland (Part 3 of 3) from Viking Tales by Jennie Hall Young Frogs from Outdoor Visits by Edith M. Patch The Wolf and the Crane from The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter I Build Me a Castle from Robinson Crusoe Written Anew for Children by James Baldwin Circe and Ulysses from A Child's Book of Myths and Enchantment Tales by Margaret Evans Price Reddy Fox Tries To Keep Out of Sight from The Adventures of Prickly Porky by Thornton Burgess The Little Jacob Story from The Sandman: His Ship Stories by Willliam J. Hopkins
Come Out to Play, Anonymous If I Were a Sunbeam by Lucy Larcom   Little Sorrow by Marian Douglas The Scribe by Walter de la Mare Spring by Celia Thaxter The Wind by Robert Louis Stevenson
First row Previous row          Next row Last row
The Aesop for Children  by Milo Winter

The Frogs Who Wished for a King

The Frogs were tired of governing themselves. They had so much freedom that it had spoiled them, and they did nothing but sit around croaking in a bored manner and wishing for a government that could entertain them with the pomp and display of royalty, and rule them in a way to make them know they were being ruled. No milk and water government for them, they declared. So they sent a petition to Jupiter asking for a king.

Jupiter saw what simple and foolish creatures they were, but to keep them quiet and make them think they had a king he threw down a huge log, which fell into the water with a great splash. The Frogs hid themselves among the reeds and grasses, thinking the new king to be some fearful giant. But they soon discovered how tame and peaceable King Log was. In a short time the younger Frogs were using him for a diving platform, while the older Frogs made him a meeting place, where they complained loudly to Jupiter about the government.

To teach the Frogs a lesson the ruler of the gods now sent a Crane to be king of Frogland. The Crane proved to be a very different sort of king from old King Log. He gobbled up the poor Frogs right and left and they soon saw what fools they had been. In mournful croaks they begged Jupiter to take away the cruel tyrant before they should all be destroyed.


[Illustration]

"How now!" cried Jupiter "Are you not yet content? You have what you asked for and so you have only yourselves to blame for your misfortunes."

Be sure you can better your condition before you seek to change.