Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for February

All But Blind

All but blind
In his chambered hole
Gropes for worms
The four-clawed Mole.

All but blind
In the evening sky
The hooded Bat
Twirls softly by.

All but blind
In the burning day
The Barn-Owl blunders
On her way.

And blind as are
These three to me,
So blind to someone
I must be.

	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

The Tortoise and the Ducks

The Tortoise, you know, carries his house on his back. No matter how hard he tries, he cannot leave home. They say that Jupiter punished him so, because he was such a lazy stay-at-home that he would not go to Jupiter's wedding, even when especially invited.

After many years, Tortoise began to wish he had gone to that wedding. When he saw how gaily the birds flew about and how the Hare and the Chipmunk and all the other animals ran nimbly by, always eager to see everything there was to be seen, the Tortoise felt very sad and discontented. He wanted to see the world too, and there he was with a house on his back and little short legs that could hardly drag him along.

One day he met a pair of Ducks and told them all his trouble.

"We can help you to see the world," said the Ducks. "Take hold of this stick with your teeth and we will carry you far up in the air where you can see the whole countryside. But keep quiet or you will be sorry."

The Tortoise was very glad indeed. He seized the stick firmly with his teeth, the two Ducks took hold of it one at each end, and away they sailed up toward the clouds.

Just then a Crow flew by. He was very much astonished at the strange sight and cried:

"This must surely be the King of Tortoises!"

"Why certainly—" began the Tortoise.

But as he opened his mouth to say these foolish words he lost his hold on the stick, and down he fell to the ground, where he was dashed to pieces on a rock.

Foolish curiosity and vanity often lead to misfortune.