Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for December

Alone

A very old woman
Lives in yon house.
The squeak of the cricket,
The stir of the mouse,
Are all she knows
Of the earth and us.

Once she was young,
Would dance and play,
Like many another
Young popinjay;
And run to her mother
At dusk of day.

And colours bright
She delighted in;
The fiddle to hear,
And to lift her chin,
And sing as small
As a twittering wren.

But age apace
Comes at last to all;
And a lone house filled
With the cricket's call;
And the scampering mouse
In the hollow wall.

	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

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.

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.