Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for May


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 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
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.