Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for December

My Shadow

I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,

And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.

He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head;

And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed.

The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow—

Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow;

For he sometimes shoots up taller like an india-rubber ball,

And he sometimes gets so little that there's none of him at all.

He hasn't got a notion of how children ought to play,

And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way.

He stays so close beside me, he's a coward, you can see;

I'd think shame to stick to nursie as that shadow sticks to me!

One morning, very early, before the sun was up,

I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup;

But my lazy little shadow, like an arrant sleepy-head,

Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
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

The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter

The Hare and the Tortoise

A Hare was making fun of the Tortoise one day for being so slow.

"Do you ever get anywhere?" he asked with a mocking laugh.

"Yes," replied the Tortoise, "and I get there sooner than you think. I'll run you a race and prove it."

The Hare was much amused at the idea of running a race with the Tortoise, but for the fun of the thing he agreed. So the Fox, who had consented to act as judge, marked the distance and started the runners off.

The Hare was soon far out of sight, and to make the Tortoise feel very deeply how ridiculous it was for him to try a race with a Hare, he lay down beside the course to take a nap until the Tortoise should catch up.

The Tortoise meanwhile kept going slowly but steadily, and, after a time, passed the place where the Hare was sleeping. But the Hare slept on very peacefully; and when at last he did wake up, the Tortoise was near the goal. The Hare now ran his swiftest, but he could not overtake the Tortoise in time.

The race is not always to the swift.

The Hare and the Tortoise