Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for November


Some One

Some one came knocking

At my wee, small door;

Some one came knocking,

I'm sure—sure—sure;

I listened, I opened,

I looked to left and right,

But naught there was a-stirring

In the still dark night;

Only the busy beetle

Tap-tapping in the wall,

Only from the forest

The screech-owl's call,

Only the cricket whistling

While the dewdrops fall,

So I know not who came knocking,

At all, at all, at all.

  Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Week 38 Changes in the Palace from The Little Lame Prince by Dinah Maria Mulock The King and His Hawk from Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin Voices of the Dusk from The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton Burgess The Forge in the Forest from The Forge in the Forest by Padraic Colum India at Last from The Discovery of New Worlds by M. B. Synge The One-Eared Bear (Part 2 of 2) from The Bears of Blue River by Charles Major Saint Cosmo and Saint Damian from In God's Garden by Amy Steedman
The Visit of Pocahontas from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis
Captain Kendall's Plot from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis
The Death of Captain Kendall from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis 		A Pleasant Game from Outdoor Visits by Edith M. Patch The Leap at Rhodes from The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter I Make Another Voyage from Robinson Crusoe Written Anew for Children by James Baldwin Bruin and Reynard Partners from Merry Tales by Eleanor L. Skinner The Foolishness of Unc' Billy Possum from The Adventures of Unc' Billy Possum by Thornton Burgess The Flying-Fish Story from The Sandman: His Sea Stories by Willliam J. Hopkins
The Gray Doves' Answer, Anonymous
The Swing by Robert Louis Stevenson 		  The Night Will Never Stay by Eleanor Farjeon Come! by Walter de la Mare The Tree by Bjornstjerne Bjornson The Bumblebee by James Whitcomb Riley
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The Aesop for Children  by Milo Winter

The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse

A Town Mouse once visited a relative who lived in the country. For lunch the Country Mouse served wheat stalks, roots, and acorns, with a dash of cold water for drink. The Town Mouse ate very sparingly, nibbling a little of this and a little of that, and by her manner making it very plain that she ate the simple food only to be polite.


[Illustration]

After the meal the friends had a long talk, or rather the Town Mouse talked about her life in the city while the Country Mouse listened. They then went to bed in a cozy nest in the hedgerow and slept in quiet and comfort until morning. In her sleep the Country Mouse dreamed she was a Town Mouse with all the luxuries and delights of city life that her friend had described for her. So the next day when the Town Mouse asked the Country Mouse to go home with her to the city, she gladly said yes.

When they reached the mansion in which the Town Mouse lived, they found on the table in the dining room the leavings of a very fine banquet. There were sweetmeats and jellies, pastries, delicious cheeses, indeed, the most tempting foods that a Mouse can imagine. But just as the Country Mouse was about to nibble a dainty bit of pastry, she heard a Cat mew loudly and scratch at the door. In great fear the Mice scurried to a hiding place, where they lay quite still for a long time, hardly daring to breathe. When at last they ventured back to the feast, the door opened suddenly and in came the servants to clear the table, followed by the House Dog.


[Illustration]

The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse

The Country Mouse stopped in the Town Mouse's den only long enough to pick up her carpet bag and umbrella.

"You may have luxuries and dainties that I have not," she said as she hurried away, "but I prefer my plain food and simple life in the country with the peace and security that go with it."

Poverty with security is better than plenty in the midst of fear and uncertainty.