Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet



Songs for December


All But Blind

All but blind

In his chambered hole

Gropes for worms

The four-clawed Mole.


All but blind

In the evening sky

The hooded Bat

Twirls softly by.


All but blind

In the burning day

The Barn-Owl blunders

On her way.


And blind as are

These three to me,

So blind to someone

I must be.


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Week 27 The Fight between Pinocchio and His Companions from Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi Androclus and the Lion from Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin A Fisherman Robbed from The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton Burgess The Hen-wife's Son and the Princess Bright Brow (Part 1 of 3) from The Boy Who Knew What the Birds Said by Padraic Colum The Days of Chivalry from The Discovery of New Worlds by M. B. Synge "Understood Aunt Frances" (Part 1 of 4) from Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher The Brave Young Prince from Hurlbut's Story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut
Reading the London Company's Orders from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis
Captain Smith a Member of the Council from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis
Captain Smith Forced To Remain Aboard from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis
The Uses of Crabs from Seaside and Wayside, Book One by Julia McNair Wright The Wolf and His Shadow from The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter I Make an Umbrella from Robinson Crusoe Written Anew for Children by James Baldwin Little Black Ant from Nursery Tales from Many Lands by Eleanor L. and Ada M. Skinner Bobby Coon Enters the Wrong House from The Adventures of Unc' Billy Possum by Thornton Burgess More Education from The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner
Friends by Abbie Farwell Brown Daisies by Frank Dempster Sherman   The Dumb Soldier by Robert Louis Stevenson All But Blind by Walter de la Mare The Succession of the Four Sweet Months by Robert Herrick Bed in Summer by Robert Louis Stevenson
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The Aesop for Children  by Milo Winter

The Shepherd Boy and the Wolf

A Shepherd Boy tended his master's Sheep near a dark forest not far from the village. Soon he found life in the pasture very dull. All he could do to amuse himself was to talk to his dog or play on his shepherd's pipe.

One day as he sat watching the Sheep and the quiet forest, and thinking what he would do should he see a Wolf, he thought of a plan to amuse himself.

His Master had told him to call for help should a Wolf attack the flock, and the Villagers would drive it away. So now, though he had not seen anything that even looked like a Wolf, he ran toward the village shouting at the top of his voice, "Wolf! Wolf!"

As he expected, the Villagers who heard the cry dropped their work and ran in great excitement to the pasture. But when they got there they found the Boy doubled up with laughter at the trick he had played on them.

A few days later the Shepherd Boy again shouted, "Wolf! Wolf!" Again the Villagers ran to help him, only to be laughed at again. Then one evening as the sun was setting behind the forest and the shadows were creeping out over the pasture, a Wolf really did spring from the underbrush and fall upon the Sheep.


[Illustration]

In terror the Boy ran toward the village shouting "Wolf! Wolf!" But though the Villagers heard the cry, they did not run to help him as they had before. "He cannot fool us again," they said.

The Wolf killed a great many of the Boy's sheep and then slipped away into the forest.

Liars are not believed even when they speak the truth.