Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet



Songs for December


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 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
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The Aesop for Children  by Milo Winter

The Ass and the Load of Salt

A Merchant, driving his Ass homeward from the seashore with a heavy load of salt, came to a river crossed by a shallow ford. They had crossed this river many times before without accident, but this time the Ass slipped and fell when halfway over. And when the Merchant at last got him to his feet, much of the salt had melted away. Delighted to find how much lighter his burden had become, the Ass finished the journey very gayly.

Next day the Merchant went for another load of salt. On the way home the Ass, remembering what had happened at the ford, purposely let himself fall into the water, and again got rid of most of his burden.

The angry Merchant immediately turned about and drove the Ass back to the seashore, where he loaded him with two great baskets of sponges. At the ford the Ass again tumbled over; but when he had scrambled to his feet, it was a very disconsolate Ass that dragged himself homeward under a load ten times heavier than before.

The same measures will not suit all circumstances.


[Illustration]

The Ass and the Load of Salt