Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for February

The Old Woman Tossed Up in a Blanket



The Carrion Crow



Sur le Pont d'Avignon



Charley over the Water

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 Tortoise and the Ducks

The Tortoise, you know, carries his house on his back. No matter how hard he tries, he cannot leave home. They say that Jupiter punished him so, because he was such a lazy stay-at-home that he would not go to Jupiter's wedding, even when especially invited.

After many years, Tortoise began to wish he had gone to that wedding. When he saw how gaily the birds flew about and how the Hare and the Chipmunk and all the other animals ran nimbly by, always eager to see everything there was to be seen, the Tortoise felt very sad and discontented. He wanted to see the world too, and there he was with a house on his back and little short legs that could hardly drag him along.

One day he met a pair of Ducks and told them all his trouble.

"We can help you to see the world," said the Ducks. "Take hold of this stick with your teeth and we will carry you far up in the air where you can see the whole countryside. But keep quiet or you will be sorry."

The Tortoise was very glad indeed. He seized the stick firmly with his teeth, the two Ducks took hold of it one at each end, and away they sailed up toward the clouds.


[Illustration]

Just then a Crow flew by. He was very much astonished at the strange sight and cried:

"This must surely be the King of Tortoises!"

"Why certainly—" began the Tortoise.

But as he opened his mouth to say these foolish words he lost his hold on the stick, and down he fell to the ground, where he was dashed to pieces on a rock.

Foolish curiosity and vanity often lead to misfortune.