Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for February

Where Go the Boats?

Dark brown is the river,
Golden is the sand.
It flows along for ever,
With trees on either hand.

Green leaves a-floating,
Castles of the foam,
Boats of mine a-boating—
Where will all come home?

On goes the river
And out past the mill,
Away down the valley,
Away down the hill.

Away down the river,
A hundred miles or more,
Other little children
Shall bring my boats ashore.

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Week 32	Pinocchio Becomes a Donkey from Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi	A Laconic Answer from Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin	Three Cousins Quite Unlike from The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton Burgess	The Sea-Maiden Who Became a Sea-Swan (Part 1 of 2) from The Boy Who Knew What the Birds Said by Padraic Colum	The Sea of Darkness from The Discovery of New Worlds by M. B. Synge	The Big Bear (Part 2 of 2) from The Bears of Blue River by Charles Major	Where David Found the Giant's Sword from Hurlbut's Story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut
	Roasting Oysters from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis Learning To Cook Other Things from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis The Sweet Potato Root from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis	Johnny Darter from Outdoor Visits by Edith M. Patch	The Ants and the Grasshopper from The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter	I See Something in the Sand from Robinson Crusoe Written Anew for Children by James Baldwin	Buchettino from Nursery Tales from Many Lands by Eleanor L. and Ada M. Skinner	Mr. Toad and Prickly Porky Put Their Heads Togethe from The Adventures of Unc' Billy Possum by Thornton Burgess	A United Family from The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner
	The Fairy Thrall, Anonymous	Thank You, Pretty Cow by Jane Taylor		The Owl and the Pussy-Cat by Edward Lear	Berries by Walter de la Mare	Dandelions by Helen Gray Cone	My Shadow by Robert Louis Stevenson

The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter

The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse

A Town Mouse once visited a relative who lived in the country. For lunch the Country Mouse served wheat stalks, roots, and acorns, with a dash of cold water for drink. The Town Mouse ate very sparingly, nibbling a little of this and a little of that, and by her manner making it very plain that she ate the simple food only to be polite.

After the meal the friends had a long talk, or rather the Town Mouse talked about her life in the city while the Country Mouse listened. They then went to bed in a cozy nest in the hedgerow and slept in quiet and comfort until morning. In her sleep the Country Mouse dreamed she was a Town Mouse with all the luxuries and delights of city life that her friend had described for her. So the next day when the Town Mouse asked the Country Mouse to go home with her to the city, she gladly said yes.

When they reached the mansion in which the Town Mouse lived, they found on the table in the dining room the leavings of a very fine banquet. There were sweetmeats and jellies, pastries, delicious cheeses, indeed, the most tempting foods that a Mouse can imagine. But just as the Country Mouse was about to nibble a dainty bit of pastry, she heard a Cat mew loudly and scratch at the door. In great fear the Mice scurried to a hiding place, where they lay quite still for a long time, hardly daring to breathe. When at last they ventured back to the feast, the door opened suddenly and in came the servants to clear the table, followed by the House Dog.

The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse

The Country Mouse stopped in the Town Mouse's den only long enough to pick up her carpet bag and umbrella.

"You may have luxuries and dainties that I have not," she said as she hurried away, "but I prefer my plain food and simple life in the country with the peace and security that go with it."

Poverty with security is better than plenty in the midst of fear and uncertainty.