Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet



Songs for July


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
First row Previous row          Next row Last row
The Aesop for Children  by Milo Winter

The Old Lion and the Fox

An old Lion, whose teeth and claws were so worn that it was not so easy for him to get food as in his younger days, pretended that he was sick. He took care to let all his neighbors know about it, and then lay down in his cave to wait for visitors. And when they came to offer him their sympathy, he ate them up one by one.

The Fox came too, but he was very cautious about it. Standing at a safe distance from the cave, he inquired politely after the Lion's health. The Lion replied that he was very ill indeed, and asked the Fox to step in for a moment. But Master Fox very wisely stayed outside, thanking the Lion very kindly for the invitation.

"I should be glad to do as you ask," he added, "but I have noticed that there are many foot prints leading into your cave and none coming out. Pray tell me, how do your visitors find their way out again?"

Take warning from the misfortunes of others.


[Illustration]