Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for December

How Doth the Little Crocodile

How doth the little crocodile
Improve his shining tail,
And pour the waters of the Nile
On every golden scale!

How cheerfully he seems to grin,
How neatly spreads his claws,
And welcomes little fishes in
With gently smiling jaws! 

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Week 21	Pinocchio Becomes a Watch-Dog from Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi	Arnold Winkelried from Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin	Bob White and Carol the Meadow Lark from The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton Burgess	The Stone of Victory (Part 2 of 3) from The Boy Who Knew What the Birds Said by Padraic Colum	The Hardy Northmen from The Discovery of New Worlds by M. B. Synge	Betsy Starts a Sewing Society (Part 3 of 3) from Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher	How the Idol Fell Down before the Ark from Hurlbut's Story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut
	The Plans of the London Company from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis The Vessels of the Fleet from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis How I Earned My Passage from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis	Mr. and Mrs. Crab Get a New Coat from Seaside and Wayside, Book One by Julia McNair Wright	The Farmer and the Stork from The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter	I Sow Some Grain from Robinson Crusoe Written Anew for Children by James Baldwin	The Wee Bannock from Nursery Tales from Many Lands by Eleanor L. and Ada M. Skinner	Sammy Jay Delivers His Message from The Adventures of Prickly Porky by Thornton Burgess	Housekeeping from The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner
	Foreign Lands by Robert Louis Stevenson	The Swallow's Nest by Edwin Arnold		Remorse by Sydney Dayre	Will Ever? by Walter de la Mare	The Light-Hearted Fairy, Anonymous	Foreign Lands by Robert Louis Stevenson

The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter

The Tortoise and the Ducks

The Tortoise, you know, carries his house on his back. No matter how hard he tries, he cannot leave home. They say that Jupiter punished him so, because he was such a lazy stay-at-home that he would not go to Jupiter's wedding, even when especially invited.

After many years, Tortoise began to wish he had gone to that wedding. When he saw how gaily the birds flew about and how the Hare and the Chipmunk and all the other animals ran nimbly by, always eager to see everything there was to be seen, the Tortoise felt very sad and discontented. He wanted to see the world too, and there he was with a house on his back and little short legs that could hardly drag him along.

One day he met a pair of Ducks and told them all his trouble.

"We can help you to see the world," said the Ducks. "Take hold of this stick with your teeth and we will carry you far up in the air where you can see the whole countryside. But keep quiet or you will be sorry."

The Tortoise was very glad indeed. He seized the stick firmly with his teeth, the two Ducks took hold of it one at each end, and away they sailed up toward the clouds.

Just then a Crow flew by. He was very much astonished at the strange sight and cried:

"This must surely be the King of Tortoises!"

"Why certainly—" began the Tortoise.

But as he opened his mouth to say these foolish words he lost his hold on the stick, and down he fell to the ground, where he was dashed to pieces on a rock.

Foolish curiosity and vanity often lead to misfortune.