Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for November


The Land of Counterpane

When I was sick and lay a-bed,

I had two pillows at my head,

And all my toys beside me lay,

To keep me happy all the day.


And sometimes for an hour or so

I watched my leaden soldiers go,

With different uniforms and drills,

Among the bed-clothes, through the hills;


And sometimes sent my ships in fleets

All up and down among the sheets;

Or brought my trees and houses out,

And planted cities all about.


I was the giant great and still

That sits upon the pillow-hill,

And sees before him, dale and plain,

The pleasant land of counterpane.

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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
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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.


[Illustration]

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.