Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for November

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 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 Frogs Who Wished for a King

The Frogs were tired of governing themselves. They had so much freedom that it had spoiled them, and they did nothing but sit around croaking in a bored manner and wishing for a government that could entertain them with the pomp and display of royalty, and rule them in a way to make them know they were being ruled. No milk and water government for them, they declared. So they sent a petition to Jupiter asking for a king.

Jupiter saw what simple and foolish creatures they were, but to keep them quiet and make them think they had a king he threw down a huge log, which fell into the water with a great splash. The Frogs hid themselves among the reeds and grasses, thinking the new king to be some fearful giant. But they soon discovered how tame and peaceable King Log was. In a short time the younger Frogs were using him for a diving platform, while the older Frogs made him a meeting place, where they complained loudly to Jupiter about the government.

To teach the Frogs a lesson the ruler of the gods now sent a Crane to be king of Frogland. The Crane proved to be a very different sort of king from old King Log. He gobbled up the poor Frogs right and left and they soon saw what fools they had been. In mournful croaks they begged Jupiter to take away the cruel tyrant before they should all be destroyed.

"How now!" cried Jupiter "Are you not yet content? You have what you asked for and so you have only yourselves to blame for your misfortunes."

Be sure you can better your condition before you seek to change.