Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for December


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 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 Fox and the Stork

The Fox one day thought of a plan to amuse himself at the expense of the Stork, at whose odd appearance he was always laughing.

"You must come and dine with me today," he said to the Stork, smiling to himself at the trick he was going to play. The Stork gladly accepted the invitation and arrived in good time and with a very good appetite.

For dinner the Fox served soup. But it was set out in a very shallow dish, and all the Stork could do was to wet the very tip of his bill. Not a drop of soup could he get. But the Fox lapped it up easily, and, to increase the disappointment of the Stork, made a great show of enjoyment.


[Illustration]

The hungry Stork was much displeased at the trick, but he was a calm, even-tempered fellow and saw no good in flying into a rage. Instead, not long afterward, he invited the Fox to dine with him in turn. The Fox arrived promptly at the time that had been set, and the Stork served a fish dinner that had a very appetizing smell. But it was served in a tall jar with a very narrow neck. The Stork could easily get at the food with his long bill, but all the Fox could do was to lick the outside of the jar, and sniff at the delicious odor. And when the Fox lost his temper, the Stork said calmly:

Do not play tricks on your neighbors unless you can stand the same treatment yourself.


[Illustration]