Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for December

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 Shepherd Boy and the Wolf

A Shepherd Boy tended his master's Sheep near a dark forest not far from the village. Soon he found life in the pasture very dull. All he could do to amuse himself was to talk to his dog or play on his shepherd's pipe.

One day as he sat watching the Sheep and the quiet forest, and thinking what he would do should he see a Wolf, he thought of a plan to amuse himself.

His Master had told him to call for help should a Wolf attack the flock, and the Villagers would drive it away. So now, though he had not seen anything that even looked like a Wolf, he ran toward the village shouting at the top of his voice, "Wolf! Wolf!"

As he expected, the Villagers who heard the cry dropped their work and ran in great excitement to the pasture. But when they got there they found the Boy doubled up with laughter at the trick he had played on them.

A few days later the Shepherd Boy again shouted, "Wolf! Wolf!" Again the Villagers ran to help him, only to be laughed at again. Then one evening as the sun was setting behind the forest and the shadows were creeping out over the pasture, a Wolf really did spring from the underbrush and fall upon the Sheep.

In terror the Boy ran toward the village shouting "Wolf! Wolf!" But though the Villagers heard the cry, they did not run to help him as they had before. "He cannot fool us again," they said.

The Wolf killed a great many of the Boy's sheep and then slipped away into the forest.

Liars are not believed even when they speak the truth.