Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for April

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 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

The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter

Belling the Cat

The mice once called a meeting to decide on a plan to free themselves of their enemy, the Cat. At least they wished to find some way of knowing when she was coming, so they might have time to run away. Indeed, something had to be done, for they lived in such constant fear of her claws that they hardly dared stir from their dens by night or day.

Many plans were discussed, but none of them was thought good enough. At last a very young Mouse got up and said:

"I have a plan that seems very simple, but I know it will be successful. All we have to do is to hang a bell about the Cat's neck. When we hear the bell ringing we will know immediately that our enemy is coming."

All the Mice were much surprised that they had not thought of such a plan before. But in the midst of the rejoicing over their good fortune, an old Mouse arose and said:

"I will say that the plan of the young Mouse is very good. But let me ask one question Who will bell the Cat?"

It is one thing to say that something should be done, but quite a different matter to do it.