Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for December


The Duel

The gingham dog and the calico cat

Side by side on the table sat;

'Twas half-past twelve, and (what do you think!)

Nor one nor t'other had slept a wink!

The old Dutch clock and the Chinese plate

Appeared to know as sure as fate

There was going to be a terrible spat.

(I wasn't there; I simply state

What was told to me by the Chinese plate!)


The gingham dog went "bow-wow-wow!"

And the calico cat replied "mee-ow!"

The air was littered, an hour or so,

With bits of gingham and calico,

While the old Dutch clock in the chimney-place

Up with its hands before its face,

For it always dreaded a family row!

(Now mind: I'm only telling you

What the old Dutch clock declares is true!)


The Chinese plate looked very blue,

And wailed, "Oh, dear! what shall we do!"

But the gingham dog and the calico cat

Wallowed this way and tumbled that,

Employing every tooth and claw

In the awfullest way you ever saw—

And, oh! how the gingham and calico flew!

(Don't fancy I exaggerate—

I got my news from the Chinese plate!)


Next morning where the two had sat

They found no trace of the dog or cat;

And some folks think unto this day

That burglars stole the pair away!

But the truth about the cat and the pup

Is this: They ate each other up!

Now what do you really think of that!

(The old Dutch clock it told me so,

And that is how I came to know.)

  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
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A Roundabout Turn  by Robert H. Charles

A Roundabout Turn


[Illustration]

A Toad that lived on Albury Heath

Wanted to see the World.


[Illustration]

"It isn't that I dislike the Heath,

It's a perfectly charming Heath, of course—"


[Illustration]

"All this heather, and all this gorse,

All this bracken to walk beneath,

With its feathery fronds to the sky uncurled—

It's as jolly a Heath as ever was found."


[Illustration]

"But it's flat, and the World, they say, is round.

Yes, fancy," he said, "it's round, they tell me,

And wouldn't I like to go and see!"


[Illustration]

"But there, it's a long way down the road

For a fellow that walks as slow as a Toad."


[Illustration]

"If I had a horse, I'd go," said he,

"If only I had a horse!

Who's got a horse," he cried, "to sell me?"


[Illustration]

Well, nobody had, you see.


[Illustration]

But horses came to the Heath one day,

Mettlesome steeds in brave array,

With prancing legs and staring eyes,

And crimson saddles that fall and rise

As round the galloping squadron flies,

And tents, and swings and cokernut shies,

And a hoop-la stall with many a prize,

And races, and a band, and cheering.


[Illustration]

"Hark!" said the Toad, "what's this I'm hearing?

It must be the World arrived, by the sound;

"Now I'll see if it's really round!"


[Illustration]

Off he crawled to the thick of things,

And the crowds made crawling rather tiring.

"Dear me!" he said, "I wish I'd wings!

If this is the World," said he, perspiring,

"It's inconveniently full of Feet."


[Illustration]

When a sudden voice said, "Look—how sweet!

Mummy, a toad! Let's give him a treat."


[Illustration]

"It's not very safe for him here on the ground,

So I'll put him up—"


[Illustration]

"—on the merry-go-round!"


[Illustration]

And before the Toad could answer, the floor began to slide,

The horses started prancing, and the riders settled to ride,

And they all moved faster, and the band began to play,

And away round he went with them, away and away and away.

Hooray! . . . . .


[Illustration]

So the Toad rode the Roundabout

Round and round and round;

No one minded him, he sat without a sound;

He rather liked the movement, he rather liked the tune,

He just rode the Roundabout

All the afternoon.


[Illustration]

When the time to pay came,

What did he do?

"Tuppence a ride! Tuppence a ride! How much for you?"

Some had ridden for one ride, some had ridden for two—

"Seventy-nine,"  the Toad cried;

The boy said, "Coo!"


[Illustration]

"But never you mind," the Toad replied,

"Here's an I.O.U."


[Illustration]

"And now," he said, "I'll go, thanks.

I want to get home to tea."


[Illustration]

"Another for nothing? No,  thanks,

Not  any more for me!"


[Illustration]

Home, holding the grasses,

Crawling a crooked road,


[Illustration]

Slowly there passes


[Illustration]

A very unsteady


[Illustration]

Toad.


[Illustration]

"Well, and what have you found, dear?

And what have you seen and heard?"


[Illustration]

"Is the World really round, dear?"

"Round?"  he said, "My word!

Round?"  said he; "you should feel it spin!

Roundest place I ever was in!—

Round?" he chuckled, "it's that!

But it's rather," he said with a knowing wink—

"It's rather a giddy  place, I think."


[Illustration]

"Give me a drop of the dew to drink,

And give me the Heath;

it's flat!"


[Illustration]