Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for May


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 2 Master Cherry Gives a Present to Geppetto from Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi King Alfred and the Beggar from Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin The Snowball from The Seasons: Winter by Jane Marcet Fruit for the King's Son from The Girl Who Sat by the Ashes by Padraic Colum Julius Caesar from On the Shores of the Great Sea by M. B. Synge Aunt Harriet Has a Cough (Part 2 of 3) from Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher How the River Jordan Became Dry from Hurlbut's Story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut
The Tooth Thrall from Viking Tales by Jennie Hall Suet Pudding for Woodpeckers (Part 2 of 3) from Outdoor Visits by Edith M. Patch The Tortoise and the Ducks from The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter I Make My First Voyage from Robinson Crusoe Written Anew for Children by James Baldwin Cupid and Apollo from A Child's Book of Myths and Enchantment Tales by Margaret Evans Price The Stranger from the North from The Adventures of Prickly Porky by Thornton Burgess The Blacksmith Story from The Sandman: His Ship Stories by Willliam J. Hopkins
The Mountain and the Squirrel by Ralph Waldo Emerson Wynken, Blynken, and Nod by Eugene Field How Doth the Little Crocodile by Lewis Carroll The Plaint of the Camel by Charles Edward Carryl Tired Tim by Walter de la Mare Norse Lullaby by Eugene Field Granny by James Whitcomb Riley
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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.