Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet



Songs for May


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 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 Hare and the Tortoise

A Hare was making fun of the Tortoise one day for being so slow.

"Do you ever get anywhere?" he asked with a mocking laugh.

"Yes," replied the Tortoise, "and I get there sooner than you think. I'll run you a race and prove it."

The Hare was much amused at the idea of running a race with the Tortoise, but for the fun of the thing he agreed. So the Fox, who had consented to act as judge, marked the distance and started the runners off.

The Hare was soon far out of sight, and to make the Tortoise feel very deeply how ridiculous it was for him to try a race with a Hare, he lay down beside the course to take a nap until the Tortoise should catch up.

The Tortoise meanwhile kept going slowly but steadily, and, after a time, passed the place where the Hare was sleeping. But the Hare slept on very peacefully; and when at last he did wake up, the Tortoise was near the goal. The Hare now ran his swiftest, but he could not overtake the Tortoise in time.

The race is not always to the swift.


[Illustration]

The Hare and the Tortoise