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 46 A People To Serve from The Little Lame Prince by Dinah Maria Mulock Whittington and His Cat (Part 1 of 2) from Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin Peter Discovers Two Old Friends from The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton Burgess The Horse from The Forge in the Forest by Padraic Colum A Great Mistake from The Discovery of New Worlds by M. B. Synge On the Stroke of Nine from The Bears of Blue River by Charles Major Saint Cecilia from In God's Garden by Amy Steedman
The Unhealthful Location from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis
Gathering Oysters from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis
Preparing Sturgeon for Food from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis
Good-by Robins (Part 3 of 3) from Outdoor Visits by Edith M. Patch The Wolf and the Sheep from The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter I Have an Anxious Day from Robinson Crusoe Written Anew for Children by James Baldwin The Pig Brother from The Golden Windows by Laura E. Richards Where Unc' Billy Possum Was from The Adventures of Unc' Billy Possum by Thornton Burgess The Lighthouse Story from The Sandman: His Sea Stories by Willliam J. Hopkins
A Good Thanksgiving by Marian Douglas Foreign Children by Robert Louis Stevenson   America by Samuel Francis Smith November by Walter de la Mare Snow-Flakes by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow They Didn't Think by Phoebe Cary
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The Aesop for Children  by Milo Winter

The Ass and the Load of Salt

A Merchant, driving his Ass homeward from the seashore with a heavy load of salt, came to a river crossed by a shallow ford. They had crossed this river many times before without accident, but this time the Ass slipped and fell when halfway over. And when the Merchant at last got him to his feet, much of the salt had melted away. Delighted to find how much lighter his burden had become, the Ass finished the journey very gayly.

Next day the Merchant went for another load of salt. On the way home the Ass, remembering what had happened at the ford, purposely let himself fall into the water, and again got rid of most of his burden.

The angry Merchant immediately turned about and drove the Ass back to the seashore, where he loaded him with two great baskets of sponges. At the ford the Ass again tumbled over; but when he had scrambled to his feet, it was a very disconsolate Ass that dragged himself homeward under a load ten times heavier than before.

The same measures will not suit all circumstances.


[Illustration]

The Ass and the Load of Salt