Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for May


Some One

Some one came knocking

At my wee, small door;

Some one came knocking,

I'm sure—sure—sure;

I listened, I opened,

I looked to left and right,

But naught there was a-stirring

In the still dark night;

Only the busy beetle

Tap-tapping in the wall,

Only from the forest

The screech-owl's call,

Only the cricket whistling

While the dewdrops fall,

So I know not who came knocking,

At all, at all, at all.

  Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Week 30 Pinocchio Leaves for the "Land of Boobies" from Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi The Sword of Damocles from Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin Some Big Mouths from The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton Burgess The Giant and the Birds (Part 1 of 2) from The Boy Who Knew What the Birds Said by Padraic Colum Dante's Great Poem from The Discovery of New Worlds by M. B. Synge "Understood Aunt Frances" (Part 4 of 4) from Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher The Shepherd Boy's Fight with the Giant from Hurlbut's Story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut
Building a House of Logs from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis
Keeping House from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis
Lack of Cleanliness in the Village from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis 		Some Very Small Snails from Outdoor Visits by Edith M. Patch The Boys and the Frogs from The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter I Am Happy as a King from Robinson Crusoe Written Anew for Children by James Baldwin Peter, Basil, and the Fox from Nursery Tales from Many Lands by Eleanor L. and Ada M. Skinner Four Little Scamps Plan Mischief from The Adventures of Unc' Billy Possum by Thornton Burgess Caught from The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner
Twinkling Bugs, Anonymous Little White Lily by George MacDonald   Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean, Anonymous The Song of the Mad Prince by Walter de la Mare An Emerald Is as Green as Grass by Christina Georgina Rossetti The Chicken's Mistake by Phoebe Cary
First row Previous row          Next row Last row
The Aesop for Children  by Milo Winter

The Fox and the Crow

One bright morning as the Fox was following his sharp nose through the wood in search of a bite to eat, he saw a Crow on the limb of a tree overhead. This was by no means the first Crow the Fox had ever seen. What caught his attention this time and made him stop for a second look, was that the lucky Crow held a bit of cheese in her beak.

"No need to search any farther," thought sly Master Fox. "Here is a dainty bite for my breakfast."

Up he trotted to the foot of the tree in which the Crow was sitting, and looking up admiringly, he cried, "Good-morning, beautiful creature!"


[Illustration]

The Crow, her head cocked on one side, watched the Fox suspiciously. But she kept her beak tightly closed on the cheese and did not return his greeting.

"What a charming creature she is!" said the Fox. "How her feathers shine! What a beautiful form and what splendid wings! Such a wonderful Bird should have a very lovely voice, since everything else about her is so perfect. Could she sing just one song, I know I should hail her Queen of Birds."

Listening to these flattering words, the Crow forgot all her suspicion, and also her breakfast. She wanted very much to be called Queen of Birds.

So she opened her beak wide to utter her loudest caw, and down fell the cheese straight into the Fox's open mouth.

"Thank you," said Master Fox sweetly, as he walked off. "Though it is cracked, you have a voice sure enough. But where are your wits?"

The flatterer lives at the expense of those who will listen to him.