Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for January

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 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.

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.

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.