Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for December




Who Has Seen the Wind?

Who has seen the wind?

Neither I nor you;

But when the leaves hang trembling

The wind is passing through.


Who has seen the wind?

Neither you nor I.

But when the trees bow down their heads

The wind is passing by.

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Week 20 Pinocchio Is Liberated from Prison from Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi The Story of William Tell from Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin More of the Blackbird Family from The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton Burgess The Stone of Victory (Part 1 of 3) from The Boy Who Knew What the Birds Said by Padraic Colum The Hero of Two Nations from The Discovery of New Worlds by M. B. Synge Betsy Starts a Sewing Society (Part 2 of 3) from Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher The Little Boy with a Linen Coat from Hurlbut's Story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut
Captain John Smith Comes to London from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis
Meeting Captain Smith from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis
Captain Smith Speaks to Me from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis 		More About Mr. Crab from Seaside and Wayside, Book One by Julia McNair Wright The Plane Tree from The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter I Make Me a Calendar from Robinson Crusoe Written Anew for Children by James Baldwin The Teeny Tiny Woman from Nursery Tales from Many Lands by Eleanor L. and Ada M. Skinner A Plot To Frighten Old Man Coyote from The Adventures of Prickly Porky by Thornton Burgess A New Home from The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner
A Friend in the Garden by Juliana Horatia Ewing Good Night and Good Morning by Richard Monckton Milnes   Little Bud Dandelion by Helen Barron Bostwick The Little Bird by Walter de la Mare The Fairies by William Allingham A Barefoot Boy by James Whitcomb Riley
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The Aesop for Children  by Milo Winter

The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse

A Town Mouse once visited a relative who lived in the country. For lunch the Country Mouse served wheat stalks, roots, and acorns, with a dash of cold water for drink. The Town Mouse ate very sparingly, nibbling a little of this and a little of that, and by her manner making it very plain that she ate the simple food only to be polite.


[Illustration]

After the meal the friends had a long talk, or rather the Town Mouse talked about her life in the city while the Country Mouse listened. They then went to bed in a cozy nest in the hedgerow and slept in quiet and comfort until morning. In her sleep the Country Mouse dreamed she was a Town Mouse with all the luxuries and delights of city life that her friend had described for her. So the next day when the Town Mouse asked the Country Mouse to go home with her to the city, she gladly said yes.

When they reached the mansion in which the Town Mouse lived, they found on the table in the dining room the leavings of a very fine banquet. There were sweetmeats and jellies, pastries, delicious cheeses, indeed, the most tempting foods that a Mouse can imagine. But just as the Country Mouse was about to nibble a dainty bit of pastry, she heard a Cat mew loudly and scratch at the door. In great fear the Mice scurried to a hiding place, where they lay quite still for a long time, hardly daring to breathe. When at last they ventured back to the feast, the door opened suddenly and in came the servants to clear the table, followed by the House Dog.


[Illustration]

The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse

The Country Mouse stopped in the Town Mouse's den only long enough to pick up her carpet bag and umbrella.

"You may have luxuries and dainties that I have not," she said as she hurried away, "but I prefer my plain food and simple life in the country with the peace and security that go with it."

Poverty with security is better than plenty in the midst of fear and uncertainty.