Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for January

I Had a Little Nut Tree



The Four Presents



Little Man and Maid



The Jolly Tester

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 24 The Island of the "Industrious Bees" from Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi The Story of Cincinnatus from Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin More Robbers from The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton Burgess The King of the Birds (Part 2 of 2) from The Boy Who Knew What the Birds Said by Padraic Colum The First Crusade from The Discovery of New Worlds by M. B. Synge Betsy Has a Birthday (Part 1 of 3) from Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher The Last of the Judges from Hurlbut's Story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut
Captain Smith a Prisoner from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis
I Attend My Master from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis
Several Islands Visited from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis 		Some Other Crabs from Seaside and Wayside, Book One by Julia McNair Wright The Lion and the Ass from The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter I Work under Many Difficulties from Robinson Crusoe Written Anew for Children by James Baldwin The Three Little Pigs from Nursery Tales from Many Lands by Eleanor L. and Ada M. Skinner Unc' Billy Possum Is Caught from The Adventures of Unc' Billy Possum by Thornton Burgess Building the Dam from The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner
When the Cows Come Home by Agnes Mitchell
Who Stole the Bird's Nest? by Lydia Maria Child 		  Under the Greenwood Tree by William Shakespeare The Ruin by Walter de la Mare Seven Times One by Jean Ingelow Obedience by Phoebe Cary
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The Aesop for Children  by Milo Winter

The Hare and the Tortoise

A Hare was making fun of the Tortoise one day for being so slow.

"Do you ever get anywhere?" he asked with a mocking laugh.

"Yes," replied the Tortoise, "and I get there sooner than you think. I'll run you a race and prove it."

The Hare was much amused at the idea of running a race with the Tortoise, but for the fun of the thing he agreed. So the Fox, who had consented to act as judge, marked the distance and started the runners off.

The Hare was soon far out of sight, and to make the Tortoise feel very deeply how ridiculous it was for him to try a race with a Hare, he lay down beside the course to take a nap until the Tortoise should catch up.

The Tortoise meanwhile kept going slowly but steadily, and, after a time, passed the place where the Hare was sleeping. But the Hare slept on very peacefully; and when at last he did wake up, the Tortoise was near the goal. The Hare now ran his swiftest, but he could not overtake the Tortoise in time.

The race is not always to the swift.


[Illustration]

The Hare and the Tortoise