Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for April

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.

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Week 23	Pinocchio Flies with a Pigeon to the Ocean from Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi	How Napoleon Crossed the Alps from Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin	A Robber in the Old Orchard from The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton Burgess	The King of the Birds (Part 1 of 2) from The Boy Who Knew What the Birds Said by Padraic Colum	A Spanish Hero from The Discovery of New Worlds by M. B. Synge	The New Clothes Fail (Part 2 of 2) from Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher	Saint Columba (Part 2 of 2) from Our Island Saints by Amy Steedman
	We Make Sail Again from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis The First Island from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis Captain Smith Accused from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis	Mr. Crab and His Friends from Seaside and Wayside, Book One by Julia McNair Wright	The Travelers and the Purse from The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter	I Harvest My Grain from Robinson Crusoe Written Anew for Children by James Baldwin	Munachar and Manachar from Nursery Tales from Many Lands by Eleanor L. and Ada M. Skinner	Buster Bear Gives It All Away from The Adventures of Prickly Porky by Thornton Burgess	At Home from The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner
	Bumble-Bee and Clover, Anonymous	Little Blue Pigeon by Eugene Field		The Caterpillar, Anonymous	The Little Green Orchard by Walter de la Mare	Hark! Hark! The Lark! by William Shakespeare	Dandelion by Nellie M. Garabrant

The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter

The Ass and the Load of Salt

A Merchant, driving his Ass homeward from the seashore with a heavy load of salt, came to a river crossed by a shallow ford. They had crossed this river many times before without accident, but this time the Ass slipped and fell when halfway over. And when the Merchant at last got him to his feet, much of the salt had melted away. Delighted to find how much lighter his burden had become, the Ass finished the journey very gayly.

Next day the Merchant went for another load of salt. On the way home the Ass, remembering what had happened at the ford, purposely let himself fall into the water, and again got rid of most of his burden.

The angry Merchant immediately turned about and drove the Ass back to the seashore, where he loaded him with two great baskets of sponges. At the ford the Ass again tumbled over; but when he had scrambled to his feet, it was a very disconsolate Ass that dragged himself homeward under a load ten times heavier than before.

The same measures will not suit all circumstances.

The Ass and the Load of Salt