Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for December

My Shadow

I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,

And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.

He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head;

And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed.

The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow—

Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow;

For he sometimes shoots up taller like an india-rubber ball,

And he sometimes gets so little that there's none of him at all.

He hasn't got a notion of how children ought to play,

And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way.

He stays so close beside me, he's a coward, you can see;

I'd think shame to stick to nursie as that shadow sticks to me!

One morning, very early, before the sun was up,

I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup;

But my lazy little shadow, like an arrant sleepy-head,

Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Week 29	The Fairy Promises To Make Pinocchio a Boy from Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi	Julius Cæsar from Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin	Some Feathered Diggers from The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton Burgess	The Hen-wife's Son and the Princess Bright Brow (Part 3 of 3) from The Boy Who Knew What the Birds Said by Padraic Colum	The Story of Marco Polo from The Discovery of New Worlds by M. B. Synge	"Understood Aunt Frances" (Part 3 of 4) from Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher	The Shepherd Boy of Bethlehem from Hurlbut's Story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut
	We Who Were Left Behind from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis Baking Bread without Ovens from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis An Unequal Division of Labor from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis	A Stem with Three Sides from Outdoor Visits by Edith M. Patch	The Rat and the Elephant from The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter	I Am Alarmed by a Voice from Robinson Crusoe Written Anew for Children by James Baldwin	Poor Old Good from Nursery Tales from Many Lands by Eleanor L. and Ada M. Skinner	Sammy Jay Learns Peter Rabbit's Secret from The Adventures of Unc' Billy Possum by Thornton Burgess	Trouble from The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner
	To the Ladybird by Caroline Bowles Southey	America by Samuel Francis Smith		Four-Leaf Clover by Ella Higginson	Nicholas Nye by Walter de la Mare	The Lost Doll by Charles Kingsley	The Brook Song by James Whitcomb Riley

The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter

The Old Lion and the Fox

An old Lion, whose teeth and claws were so worn that it was not so easy for him to get food as in his younger days, pretended that he was sick. He took care to let all his neighbors know about it, and then lay down in his cave to wait for visitors. And when they came to offer him their sympathy, he ate them up one by one.

The Fox came too, but he was very cautious about it. Standing at a safe distance from the cave, he inquired politely after the Lion's health. The Lion replied that he was very ill indeed, and asked the Fox to step in for a moment. But Master Fox very wisely stayed outside, thanking the Lion very kindly for the invitation.

"I should be glad to do as you ask," he added, "but I have noticed that there are many foot prints leading into your cave and none coming out. Pray tell me, how do your visitors find their way out again?"

Take warning from the misfortunes of others.