Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for January

I Had a Little Nut Tree



The Four Presents



Little Man and Maid



The Jolly Tester

The Land of Story-Books

At evening when the lamp is lit,

Around the fire my parents sit;

They sit at home and talk and sing,

And do not play at anything.


Now, with my little gun, I crawl

All in the dark along the wall,

And follow round the forest track

Away behind the sofa back.


There, in the night, where none can spy,

All in my hunter's camp I lie,

And play at books that I have read

Till it is time to go to bed.


These are the hills, these are the woods,

These are my starry solitudes;

And there the river by whose brink

The roaring lions come to drink.


I see the others far away

As if in firelit camp they lay,

And I, like to an Indian scout,

Around their party prowled about.


So when my nurse comes in for me,

Home I return across the sea,

And go to bed with backward looks

At my dear land of Story-Books.

  Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Week 16 Pinocchio Is Found and Put to Bed from Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi Sir Walter Raleigh from Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin Longbill and Teeter from The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton Burgess The Matchless Maiden Loses Her Golden Slipper (Part 2 of 2) from The Girl Who Sat by the Ashes by Padraic Colum A New Rome from The Discovery of New Worlds by M. B. Synge Elizabeth Ann Fails in an Examination (Part 1 of 3) from Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher Saint Catherine of Siena from In God's Garden by Amy Steedman
Leif and His New Land from Viking Tales by Jennie Hall White Feathers from Outdoor Visits by Edith M. Patch The Oxen and the Wheels from The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter I Keep Myself Busy from Robinson Crusoe Written Anew for Children by James Baldwin Orpheus and Eurydice from A Child's Book of Myths and Enchantment Tales by Margaret Evans Price Old Granny Fox Loses Her Dignity from The Adventures of Prickly Porky by Thornton Burgess The Deserted Ship Story from The Sandman: His Ship Stories by Willliam J. Hopkins
Prince Tatters by Laura E. Richards The Little Plant by Kate L. Brown   The Four Princesses by Kate Greenaway Tom's Little Dog by Walter de la Mare The Bluebird by Emily Huntington Miller One, Two, Three by Henry C. Bunner
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The Aesop for Children  by Milo Winter

The Fox and the Crow

One bright morning as the Fox was following his sharp nose through the wood in search of a bite to eat, he saw a Crow on the limb of a tree overhead. This was by no means the first Crow the Fox had ever seen. What caught his attention this time and made him stop for a second look, was that the lucky Crow held a bit of cheese in her beak.

"No need to search any farther," thought sly Master Fox. "Here is a dainty bite for my breakfast."

Up he trotted to the foot of the tree in which the Crow was sitting, and looking up admiringly, he cried, "Good-morning, beautiful creature!"


[Illustration]

The Crow, her head cocked on one side, watched the Fox suspiciously. But she kept her beak tightly closed on the cheese and did not return his greeting.

"What a charming creature she is!" said the Fox. "How her feathers shine! What a beautiful form and what splendid wings! Such a wonderful Bird should have a very lovely voice, since everything else about her is so perfect. Could she sing just one song, I know I should hail her Queen of Birds."

Listening to these flattering words, the Crow forgot all her suspicion, and also her breakfast. She wanted very much to be called Queen of Birds.

So she opened her beak wide to utter her loudest caw, and down fell the cheese straight into the Fox's open mouth.

"Thank you," said Master Fox sweetly, as he walked off. "Though it is cracked, you have a voice sure enough. But where are your wits?"

The flatterer lives at the expense of those who will listen to him.