Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet



Songs for September


The Duel

The gingham dog and the calico cat

Side by side on the table sat;

'Twas half-past twelve, and (what do you think!)

Nor one nor t'other had slept a wink!

The old Dutch clock and the Chinese plate

Appeared to know as sure as fate

There was going to be a terrible spat.

(I wasn't there; I simply state

What was told to me by the Chinese plate!)


The gingham dog went "bow-wow-wow!"

And the calico cat replied "mee-ow!"

The air was littered, an hour or so,

With bits of gingham and calico,

While the old Dutch clock in the chimney-place

Up with its hands before its face,

For it always dreaded a family row!

(Now mind: I'm only telling you

What the old Dutch clock declares is true!)


The Chinese plate looked very blue,

And wailed, "Oh, dear! what shall we do!"

But the gingham dog and the calico cat

Wallowed this way and tumbled that,

Employing every tooth and claw

In the awfullest way you ever saw—

And, oh! how the gingham and calico flew!

(Don't fancy I exaggerate—

I got my news from the Chinese plate!)


Next morning where the two had sat

They found no trace of the dog or cat;

And some folks think unto this day

That burglars stole the pair away!

But the truth about the cat and the pup

Is this: They ate each other up!

Now what do you really think of that!

(The old Dutch clock it told me so,

And that is how I came to know.)


  Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Week 25 Pinocchio Promises To Be Good and Studious from Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi The Story of Regulus from Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin Some Homes in the Green Forest from The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton Burgess Bloom-of-Youth and the Witch of the Elders (Part 1 of 2) from The Boy Who Knew What the Birds Said by Padraic Colum Frederick Barbarossa from The Discovery of New Worlds by M. B. Synge Betsy Has a Birthday (Part 2 of 3) from Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher The Tall Man Who Was Chosen King from Hurlbut's Story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut
A Variety of Wild Game from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis
The Tempest from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis
The New Country Sighted from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis
The Hermit Crab from Seaside and Wayside, Book One by Julia McNair Wright The Frogs Who Wished for a King from The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter I Become a Potter from Robinson Crusoe Written Anew for Children by James Baldwin The Travels of a Fox from Nursery Tales from Many Lands by Eleanor L. and Ada M. Skinner Reddy Fox Thinks He Sees a Ghost from The Adventures of Unc' Billy Possum by Thornton Burgess Cherry Picking from The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner
A Boy's Song by James Hogg The Cow by Robert Louis Stevenson   The Pasture by Robert Frost In Vain by Walter de la Mare Wishing by William Allingham Ariel's Song from The Tempest by William Shakespeare
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The Aesop for Children  by Milo Winter

The Fox and the Crow

One bright morning as the Fox was following his sharp nose through the wood in search of a bite to eat, he saw a Crow on the limb of a tree overhead. This was by no means the first Crow the Fox had ever seen. What caught his attention this time and made him stop for a second look, was that the lucky Crow held a bit of cheese in her beak.

"No need to search any farther," thought sly Master Fox. "Here is a dainty bite for my breakfast."

Up he trotted to the foot of the tree in which the Crow was sitting, and looking up admiringly, he cried, "Good-morning, beautiful creature!"


[Illustration]

The Crow, her head cocked on one side, watched the Fox suspiciously. But she kept her beak tightly closed on the cheese and did not return his greeting.

"What a charming creature she is!" said the Fox. "How her feathers shine! What a beautiful form and what splendid wings! Such a wonderful Bird should have a very lovely voice, since everything else about her is so perfect. Could she sing just one song, I know I should hail her Queen of Birds."

Listening to these flattering words, the Crow forgot all her suspicion, and also her breakfast. She wanted very much to be called Queen of Birds.

So she opened her beak wide to utter her loudest caw, and down fell the cheese straight into the Fox's open mouth.

"Thank you," said Master Fox sweetly, as he walked off. "Though it is cracked, you have a voice sure enough. But where are your wits?"

The flatterer lives at the expense of those who will listen to him.