Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for July

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 Ass and the Load of Salt

A Merchant, driving his Ass homeward from the seashore with a heavy load of salt, came to a river crossed by a shallow ford. They had crossed this river many times before without accident, but this time the Ass slipped and fell when halfway over. And when the Merchant at last got him to his feet, much of the salt had melted away. Delighted to find how much lighter his burden had become, the Ass finished the journey very gayly.

Next day the Merchant went for another load of salt. On the way home the Ass, remembering what had happened at the ford, purposely let himself fall into the water, and again got rid of most of his burden.

The angry Merchant immediately turned about and drove the Ass back to the seashore, where he loaded him with two great baskets of sponges. At the ford the Ass again tumbled over; but when he had scrambled to his feet, it was a very disconsolate Ass that dragged himself homeward under a load ten times heavier than before.

The same measures will not suit all circumstances.

The Ass and the Load of Salt