Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for December


The Land of Story-Books

At evening when the lamp is lit,

Around the fire my parents sit;

They sit at home and talk and sing,

And do not play at anything.


Now, with my little gun, I crawl

All in the dark along the wall,

And follow round the forest track

Away behind the sofa back.


There, in the night, where none can spy,

All in my hunter's camp I lie,

And play at books that I have read

Till it is time to go to bed.


These are the hills, these are the woods,

These are my starry solitudes;

And there the river by whose brink

The roaring lions come to drink.


I see the others far away

As if in firelit camp they lay,

And I, like to an Indian scout,

Around their party prowled about.


So when my nurse comes in for me,

Home I return across the sea,

And go to bed with backward looks

At my dear land of Story-Books.

  Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
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 Lion and the Mouse

A Lion lay asleep in the forest, his great head resting on his paws. A timid little Mouse came upon him unexpectedly, and in her fright and haste to get away, ran across the Lion's nose. Roused from his nap, the Lion laid his huge paw angrily on the tiny creature to kill her.

"Spare me!" begged the poor Mouse. "Please let me go and some day I will surely repay you."

The Lion was much amused to think that a Mouse could ever help him. But he was generous and finally let the Mouse go.

Some days later, while stalking his prey in the forest, the Lion was caught in the toils of a hunter's net. Unable to free himself, he filled the forest with his angry roaring. The Mouse knew the voice and quickly found the Lion struggling in the net. Running to one of the great ropes that bound him, she gnawed it until it parted, and soon the Lion was free.


[Illustration]

"You laughed when I said I would repay you," said the Mouse. "Now you see that even a Mouse can help a Lion."

A kindness is never wasted.