Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for May

My Shadow

I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,

And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.

He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head;

And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed.

The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow—

Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow;

For he sometimes shoots up taller like an india-rubber ball,

And he sometimes gets so little that there's none of him at all.

He hasn't got a notion of how children ought to play,

And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way.

He stays so close beside me, he's a coward, you can see;

I'd think shame to stick to nursie as that shadow sticks to me!

One morning, very early, before the sun was up,

I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup;

But my lazy little shadow, like an arrant sleepy-head,

Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Week 36	Pinocchio Becomes a Boy at Last from Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi	The Brave Three Hundred from Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin	The Constant Singers from The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton Burgess	The Treasure of King Labraid Lorc (Part 1 of 2) from The Boy Who Knew What the Birds Said by Padraic Colum	The Stormy Cape from The Discovery of New Worlds by M. B. Synge	Lost in a Forest (Part 2 of 2) from The Bears of Blue River by Charles Major	The Sound in the Treetops from Hurlbut's Story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut
	The Second Proclamation from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis Building a Fortified Village from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis Trapping Turkeys from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis	Ants with Wings from Outdoor Visits by Edith M. Patch	The Ass and the Load of Salt from The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter	I See Savages from Robinson Crusoe Written Anew for Children by James Baldwin	The Fishing Party from Merry Tales by Eleanor L. Skinner	Unc' Billy Possum Grows Hungry from The Adventures of Unc' Billy Possum by Thornton Burgess	The Porpoise Story from The Sandman: His Sea Stories by Willliam J. Hopkins
	The Bee and the Flower by Alfred Lord Tennyson	Runaway Brook by Elizabeth Lee Follen		Mine Host of "The Golden Apple" by Thomas Westwood	Bunches of Grapes by Walter de la Mare	September by Helen Hunt Jackson	The Funniest Thing in the World by James Whitcomb Riley

The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter

Belling the Cat

The mice once called a meeting to decide on a plan to free themselves of their enemy, the Cat. At least they wished to find some way of knowing when she was coming, so they might have time to run away. Indeed, something had to be done, for they lived in such constant fear of her claws that they hardly dared stir from their dens by night or day.

Many plans were discussed, but none of them was thought good enough. At last a very young Mouse got up and said:

"I have a plan that seems very simple, but I know it will be successful. All we have to do is to hang a bell about the Cat's neck. When we hear the bell ringing we will know immediately that our enemy is coming."

All the Mice were much surprised that they had not thought of such a plan before. But in the midst of the rejoicing over their good fortune, an old Mouse arose and said:

"I will say that the plan of the young Mouse is very good. But let me ask one question Who will bell the Cat?"

It is one thing to say that something should be done, but quite a different matter to do it.