Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for December

The Land of Counterpane

When I was sick and lay a-bed,
I had two pillows at my head,
And all my toys beside me lay,
To keep me happy all the day.

And sometimes for an hour or so
I watched my leaden soldiers go,
With different uniforms and drills,
Among the bed-clothes, through the hills;

And sometimes sent my ships in fleets
All up and down among the sheets;
Or brought my trees and houses out,
And planted cities all about.

I was the giant great and still
That sits upon the pillow-hill,
And sees before him, dale and plain,
The pleasant land of counterpane.

	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

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.

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.