Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for November


The Land of Story-Books

At evening when the lamp is lit,

Around the fire my parents sit;

They sit at home and talk and sing,

And do not play at anything.


Now, with my little gun, I crawl

All in the dark along the wall,

And follow round the forest track

Away behind the sofa back.


There, in the night, where none can spy,

All in my hunter's camp I lie,

And play at books that I have read

Till it is time to go to bed.


These are the hills, these are the woods,

These are my starry solitudes;

And there the river by whose brink

The roaring lions come to drink.


I see the others far away

As if in firelit camp they lay,

And I, like to an Indian scout,

Around their party prowled about.


So when my nurse comes in for me,

Home I return across the sea,

And go to bed with backward looks

At my dear land of Story-Books.

  Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Week 39 A Distant Tower from The Little Lame Prince by Dinah Maria Mulock Doctor Goldsmith from Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin Peter Saves a Friend and Learns Something from The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton Burgess FIRE: THE FIRST STORY from The Forge in the Forest by Padraic Colum
Phaethon from The Forge in the Forest by Padraic Colum 		The New Trade-Route from The Discovery of New Worlds by M. B. Synge The Wolf Hunt (Part 1 of 2) from The Bears of Blue River by Charles Major Saint Faith from In God's Garden by Amy Steedman
Captain Smith's Expedition and Return from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis
An Exciting Adventure from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis
Taken before Powhatan from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis 		Goldenrod Honey from Outdoor Visits by Edith M. Patch The Cock and the Jewel from The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter I Have a Queer Dream from Robinson Crusoe Written Anew for Children by James Baldwin The Three Wishes from Merry Tales by Eleanor L. Skinner Why Unc' Billy Possum Didn't Go Home from The Adventures of Unc' Billy Possum by Thornton Burgess The Log-Book Story from The Sandman: His Sea Stories by Willliam J. Hopkins
Golden-Rod by Frank Dempster Sherman The Ride to Bumpville by Eugene Field   The Quest by Eudora Bumstead I Can't Abear by Walter de la Mare Today by Thomas Carlyle How the Leaves Came Down by Susan Coolidge
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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.


[Illustration]

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.