Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for April

The Sugar-Plum Tree

Have you ever heard of the Sugar-Plum Tree?
'Tis a marvel of great renown!
It blooms on the shore of the Lollipop sea
In the garden of Shut-Eye Town;
The fruit that it bears is so wondrously sweet
(As those who have tasted it say)
That good little children have only to eat
Of that fruit to be happy next day.

When you've got to the tree, you would have a hard time
To capture the fruit which I sing;
The tree is so tall that no person could climb
To the boughs where the sugar-plums swing!
But up in that tree sits a chocolate cat,
And a gingerbread dog prowls below—
And this is the way you contrive to get at
Those sugar-plums tempting you so:

You say but the word to that gingerbread dog
And he barks with such terrible zest
That the chocolate cat is at once all agog,
As her swelling proportions attest.
And the chocolate cat goes cavorting around
From this leafy limb unto that,
And the sugar-plums tumble, of course, to the ground—
Hurrah for that chocolate cat!

There are marshmallows, gumdrops, and peppermint canes,
With stripings of scarlet or gold,
And you carry away of the treasure that rains
As much as your apron can hold!
So come, little child, cuddle closer to me
In your dainty white nightcap and gown,
And I'll rock you away to that Sugar-Plum Tree
In the garden of Shut-Eye Town.

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Week 22	Pinocchio Discovers the Robbers from Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi	The Bell of Atri from Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin	A Swallow and One Who Isn't from The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton Burgess	The Stone of Victory (Part 3 of 3) from The Boy Who Knew What the Birds Said by Padraic Colum	How the Northmen Conquered England from The Discovery of New Worlds by M. B. Synge	The New Clothes Fail (Part 1 of 2) from Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher	Saint Columba (Part 1 of 2) from Our Island Saints by Amy Steedman
	When the Fleet Set Sail from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis The Voyage Delayed from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis Nathaniel's Story from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis	What the Crab Does from Seaside and Wayside, Book One by Julia McNair Wright	The Sheep and the Pig from The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter	I Make a Long Journey from Robinson Crusoe Written Anew for Children by James Baldwin	The Three Friends from Nursery Tales from Many Lands by Eleanor L. and Ada M. Skinner	Old Man Coyote Loses His Appetite from The Adventures of Prickly Porky by Thornton Burgess	Earning a Living from The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner
	The Lamb by William Blake	Bed in Summer by Robert Louis Stevenson		Discontent by Sarah Orne Jewett	Summer Evening by Walter de la Mare	A Boy's Song by James Hogg	The Pixy People by James Whitcomb Riley

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.

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.

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.