Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for November


The Land of Story-Books

At evening when the lamp is lit,

Around the fire my parents sit;

They sit at home and talk and sing,

And do not play at anything.


Now, with my little gun, I crawl

All in the dark along the wall,

And follow round the forest track

Away behind the sofa back.


There, in the night, where none can spy,

All in my hunter's camp I lie,

And play at books that I have read

Till it is time to go to bed.


These are the hills, these are the woods,

These are my starry solitudes;

And there the river by whose brink

The roaring lions come to drink.


I see the others far away

As if in firelit camp they lay,

And I, like to an Indian scout,

Around their party prowled about.


So when my nurse comes in for me,

Home I return across the sea,

And go to bed with backward looks

At my dear land of Story-Books.

  Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Week 3 Geppetto Returns Home To Make a Puppet from Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi King Canute on the Seashore from Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin Another Snowball from The Seasons: Winter by Jane Marcet Girl-go-with-the-Goats Loses House Room from The Girl Who Sat by the Ashes by Padraic Colum The Flight of Pompey from On the Shores of the Great Sea by M. B. Synge Aunt Harriet Has a Cough (Part 3 of 3) from Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher The Story of a Wedge of Gold from Hurlbut's Story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut
Olaf's Farm from Viking Tales by Jennie Hall Juncos (Part 3 of 3) from Outdoor Visits by Edith M. Patch The Young Crab and His Mother from The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter I See Much of the World from Robinson Crusoe Written Anew for Children by James Baldwin Diana and Actaeon from A Child's Book of Myths and Enchantment Tales by Margaret Evans Price Prickly Porky Makes Friends from The Adventures of Prickly Porky by Thornton Burgess The Launching Story from The Sandman: His Ship Stories by Willliam J. Hopkins
Snow in Town by Rickman Mark The Land of Story-Books by Robert Louis Stevenson There Was an Old Person Whose Habits by Edward Lear The Wind and the Moon by George MacDonald Mrs. Earth by Walter de la Mare A Farewell by Charles Kingsley Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star by Jane Taylor
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A Roundabout Turn  by Robert H. Charles

A Roundabout Turn


[Illustration]

A Toad that lived on Albury Heath

Wanted to see the World.


[Illustration]

"It isn't that I dislike the Heath,

It's a perfectly charming Heath, of course—"


[Illustration]

"All this heather, and all this gorse,

All this bracken to walk beneath,

With its feathery fronds to the sky uncurled—

It's as jolly a Heath as ever was found."


[Illustration]

"But it's flat, and the World, they say, is round.

Yes, fancy," he said, "it's round, they tell me,

And wouldn't I like to go and see!"


[Illustration]

"But there, it's a long way down the road

For a fellow that walks as slow as a Toad."


[Illustration]

"If I had a horse, I'd go," said he,

"If only I had a horse!

Who's got a horse," he cried, "to sell me?"


[Illustration]

Well, nobody had, you see.


[Illustration]

But horses came to the Heath one day,

Mettlesome steeds in brave array,

With prancing legs and staring eyes,

And crimson saddles that fall and rise

As round the galloping squadron flies,

And tents, and swings and cokernut shies,

And a hoop-la stall with many a prize,

And races, and a band, and cheering.


[Illustration]

"Hark!" said the Toad, "what's this I'm hearing?

It must be the World arrived, by the sound;

"Now I'll see if it's really round!"


[Illustration]

Off he crawled to the thick of things,

And the crowds made crawling rather tiring.

"Dear me!" he said, "I wish I'd wings!

If this is the World," said he, perspiring,

"It's inconveniently full of Feet."


[Illustration]

When a sudden voice said, "Look—how sweet!

Mummy, a toad! Let's give him a treat."


[Illustration]

"It's not very safe for him here on the ground,

So I'll put him up—"


[Illustration]

"—on the merry-go-round!"


[Illustration]

And before the Toad could answer, the floor began to slide,

The horses started prancing, and the riders settled to ride,

And they all moved faster, and the band began to play,

And away round he went with them, away and away and away.

Hooray! . . . . .


[Illustration]

So the Toad rode the Roundabout

Round and round and round;

No one minded him, he sat without a sound;

He rather liked the movement, he rather liked the tune,

He just rode the Roundabout

All the afternoon.


[Illustration]

When the time to pay came,

What did he do?

"Tuppence a ride! Tuppence a ride! How much for you?"

Some had ridden for one ride, some had ridden for two—

"Seventy-nine,"  the Toad cried;

The boy said, "Coo!"


[Illustration]

"But never you mind," the Toad replied,

"Here's an I.O.U."


[Illustration]

"And now," he said, "I'll go, thanks.

I want to get home to tea."


[Illustration]

"Another for nothing? No,  thanks,

Not  any more for me!"


[Illustration]

Home, holding the grasses,

Crawling a crooked road,


[Illustration]

Slowly there passes


[Illustration]

A very unsteady


[Illustration]

Toad.


[Illustration]

"Well, and what have you found, dear?

And what have you seen and heard?"


[Illustration]

"Is the World really round, dear?"

"Round?"  he said, "My word!

Round?"  said he; "you should feel it spin!

Roundest place I ever was in!—

Round?" he chuckled, "it's that!

But it's rather," he said with a knowing wink—

"It's rather a giddy  place, I think."


[Illustration]

"Give me a drop of the dew to drink,

And give me the Heath;

it's flat!"


[Illustration]