Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for December

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 37	The Christening from The Little Lame Prince by Dinah Maria Mulock	Socrates and His House from Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin	Jenny Wren's Cousins from The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton Burgess	WATER: THE SECOND STORY from The Forge in the Forest by Padraic Colum King Fergus and the Water-Horse from The Forge in the Forest by Padraic Colum	Vasco da Gama's Great Voyage from The Discovery of New Worlds by M. B. Synge	The One-Eared Bear (Part 1 of 2) from The Bears of Blue River by Charles Major	The Cripple at the King's Table from Hurlbut's Story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut
	A Crude Kind of Chimney from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis Cooking a Turkey from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis Candles or Rushlights from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis	Berries for Bluebirds from Outdoor Visits by Edith M. Patch	The Lion and the Gnat from The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter	I Discover a Wreck from Robinson Crusoe Written Anew for Children by James Baldwin	The Forest Bailiff from Merry Tales by Eleanor L. Skinner	Old Mrs. Possum Grows Worried from The Adventures of Unc' Billy Possum by Thornton Burgess	The Seaweed Story from The Sandman: His Sea Stories by Willliam J. Hopkins
	Where Go the Boats? by Robert Louis Stevenson	The Sun Travels by Robert Louis Stevenson		John Grumblie, Anonymous	The Song of Shadows by Walter de la Mare	The Babie by Hugh Miller	Lady Moon by Richard Monckton Milnes

The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter

The North Wind and the Sun

The North Wind and the Sun had a quarrel about which of them was the stronger. While they were disputing with much heat and bluster, a Traveler passed along the road wrapped in a cloak.

"Let us agree," said the Sun, "that he is the stronger who can strip that Traveler of his cloak."

"Very well," growled the North Wind, and at once sent a cold, howling blast against the Traveler.

With the first gust of wind the ends of the cloak whipped about the Traveler's body. But he immediately wrapped it closely around him, and the harder the Wind blew, the tighter he held it to him. The North Wind tore angrily at the cloak, but all his efforts were in vain.

Then the Sun began to shine. At first his beams were gentle, and in the pleasant warmth after the bitter cold of the North Wind, the Traveler unfastened his cloak and let it hang loosely from his shoulders. The Sun's rays grew warmer and warmer. The man took off his cap and mopped his brow. At last he became so heated that he pulled off his cloak, and, to escape the blazing sunshine, threw himself down in the welcome shade of a tree by the roadside.

Gentleness and kind persuasion win where force and bluster fail.