Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet



Songs for July


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 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
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The Aesop for Children  by Milo Winter

The Fox and the Grapes

A Fox one day spied a beautiful bunch of ripe grapes hanging from a vine trained along the branches of a tree. The grapes seemed ready to burst with juice, and the Fox's mouth watered as he gazed longingly at them.


[Illustration]

The bunch hung from a high branch, and the Fox had to jump for it, The first time he jumped he missed it by a long way. So he walked off a short distance and took a running leap at it, only to fall short once more. Again and again he tried, but in vain.

Now he sat down and looked at the grapes in disgust.

"What a fool I am," he said. "Here I am wearing myself out to get a bunch of sour grapes that are not worth gaping for."

And off he walked very, very scornfully.

There are many who pretend to despise and belittle that which is beyond their reach.