Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for December


Some One

Some one came knocking

At my wee, small door;

Some one came knocking,

I'm sure—sure—sure;

I listened, I opened,

I looked to left and right,

But naught there was a-stirring

In the still dark night;

Only the busy beetle

Tap-tapping in the wall,

Only from the forest

The screech-owl's call,

Only the cricket whistling

While the dewdrops fall,

So I know not who came knocking,

At all, at all, at all.

  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 Frogs Who Wished for a King

The Frogs were tired of governing themselves. They had so much freedom that it had spoiled them, and they did nothing but sit around croaking in a bored manner and wishing for a government that could entertain them with the pomp and display of royalty, and rule them in a way to make them know they were being ruled. No milk and water government for them, they declared. So they sent a petition to Jupiter asking for a king.

Jupiter saw what simple and foolish creatures they were, but to keep them quiet and make them think they had a king he threw down a huge log, which fell into the water with a great splash. The Frogs hid themselves among the reeds and grasses, thinking the new king to be some fearful giant. But they soon discovered how tame and peaceable King Log was. In a short time the younger Frogs were using him for a diving platform, while the older Frogs made him a meeting place, where they complained loudly to Jupiter about the government.

To teach the Frogs a lesson the ruler of the gods now sent a Crane to be king of Frogland. The Crane proved to be a very different sort of king from old King Log. He gobbled up the poor Frogs right and left and they soon saw what fools they had been. In mournful croaks they begged Jupiter to take away the cruel tyrant before they should all be destroyed.


[Illustration]

"How now!" cried Jupiter "Are you not yet content? You have what you asked for and so you have only yourselves to blame for your misfortunes."

Be sure you can better your condition before you seek to change.