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 North Wind and the Sun

The North Wind and the Sun had a quarrel about which of them was the stronger. While they were disputing with much heat and bluster, a Traveler passed along the road wrapped in a cloak.

"Let us agree," said the Sun, "that he is the stronger who can strip that Traveler of his cloak."

"Very well," growled the North Wind, and at once sent a cold, howling blast against the Traveler.


[Illustration]

With the first gust of wind the ends of the cloak whipped about the Traveler's body. But he immediately wrapped it closely around him, and the harder the Wind blew, the tighter he held it to him. The North Wind tore angrily at the cloak, but all his efforts were in vain.

Then the Sun began to shine. At first his beams were gentle, and in the pleasant warmth after the bitter cold of the North Wind, the Traveler unfastened his cloak and let it hang loosely from his shoulders. The Sun's rays grew warmer and warmer. The man took off his cap and mopped his brow. At last he became so heated that he pulled off his cloak, and, to escape the blazing sunshine, threw himself down in the welcome shade of a tree by the roadside.

Gentleness and kind persuasion win where force and bluster fail.


[Illustration]