Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for January

I Had a Little Nut Tree

The Four Presents

Little Man and Maid

The Jolly Tester

Elf and Dormouse

Under a toadstool

Crept a wee Elf,

Out of the rain

To shelter himself.

Under the toadstool,

Sound asleep,

Sat a big Dormouse

All in a heap.

Trembled the wee Elf

Frightened, and yet

Fearing to fly away

Lest he get wet.

To the next shelter

Maybe a mile

Sudden the wee Elf

Smiled a wee smile.

Tugged till the toadstool

Toppled in two

Holding it over him

Gayly he flew.

Soon he was safe home,

Dry as could be.

Soon woke the Dormouse

"Good gracious me!

Where is my toadstool!"

Loud he lamented,

And that's how umbrellas

First were invented.

	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 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.

"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.