Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet



Songs for June


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 Fox and the Goat

A Fox fell into a well, and though it was not very deep, he found that he could not get out again. After he had been in the well a long time, a thirsty Goat came by. The Goat thought the Fox had gone down to drink, and so he asked if the water was good.


[Illustration]

"The finest in the whole country," said the crafty Fox, "jump in and try it. There is more than enough for both of us."

The thirsty Goat immediately jumped in and began to drink. The Fox just as quickly jumped on the Goat's back and leaped from the tip of the Goat's horns out of the well.

The foolish Goat now saw what a plight he had got into, and begged the Fox to help him out. But the Fox was already on his way to the woods.

"If you had as much sense as you have beard, old fellow," he said as he ran, "you would have been more cautious about finding a way to get out again before you jumped in."

Look before you leap.