Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for December

Elf and Dormouse

Under a toadstool

Crept a wee Elf,

Out of the rain

To shelter himself.

Under the toadstool,

Sound asleep,

Sat a big Dormouse

All in a heap.

Trembled the wee Elf

Frightened, and yet

Fearing to fly away

Lest he get wet.

To the next shelter

Maybe a mile

Sudden the wee Elf

Smiled a wee smile.

Tugged till the toadstool

Toppled in two

Holding it over him

Gayly he flew.

Soon he was safe home,

Dry as could be.

Soon woke the Dormouse

"Good gracious me!

Where is my toadstool!"

Loud he lamented,

And that's how umbrellas

First were invented.

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Week 47	A Little Snow Bird from The Birds' Christmas Carol by Kate Douglas Wiggin	Whittington and His Cat (Part 2 of 2) from Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin	Some Merry Seed-Eaters from The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton Burgess	Which Is Best from Fairy Tales Too Good To Miss—Into the Woods by Lisa M. Ripperton	Follow the Leader from The Discovery of New Worlds by M. B. Synge	A Castle on Brandywine (Part 1 of 2) from The Bears of Blue River by Charles Major	The Angel with the Drawn Sword on Mount Moriah from Hurlbut's Story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut
	Turpentine and Tar from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis The Making of Clapboards from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis Providing for the Children from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis	Broad Leaves in Fall from Outdoor Visits by Edith M. Patch	The Hares and the Frogs from The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter	I Am Called Governor from Robinson Crusoe Written Anew for Children by James Baldwin	The Sailor Man from The Golden Windows by Laura E. Richards	Happy Jack Squirrel Makes an Unexpected Call from The Adventures of Unc' Billy Possum by Thornton Burgess	The Runaway Story from The Sandman: His Sea Stories by Willliam J. Hopkins
	Aladdin by James Russell Lowell	Wizard Frost by Frank Dempster Sherman		The Merman by Alfred Lord Tennyson	Many a Mickle by Walter de la Mare	Thanksgiving Day by Lydia Maria Child	Thanksgiving Day by Lydia Maria Child

The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter

The North Wind and the Sun

The North Wind and the Sun had a quarrel about which of them was the stronger. While they were disputing with much heat and bluster, a Traveler passed along the road wrapped in a cloak.

"Let us agree," said the Sun, "that he is the stronger who can strip that Traveler of his cloak."

"Very well," growled the North Wind, and at once sent a cold, howling blast against the Traveler.

With the first gust of wind the ends of the cloak whipped about the Traveler's body. But he immediately wrapped it closely around him, and the harder the Wind blew, the tighter he held it to him. The North Wind tore angrily at the cloak, but all his efforts were in vain.

Then the Sun began to shine. At first his beams were gentle, and in the pleasant warmth after the bitter cold of the North Wind, the Traveler unfastened his cloak and let it hang loosely from his shoulders. The Sun's rays grew warmer and warmer. The man took off his cap and mopped his brow. At last he became so heated that he pulled off his cloak, and, to escape the blazing sunshine, threw himself down in the welcome shade of a tree by the roadside.

Gentleness and kind persuasion win where force and bluster fail.