Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for April

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 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 Hare and the Tortoise

A Hare was making fun of the Tortoise one day for being so slow.

"Do you ever get anywhere?" he asked with a mocking laugh.

"Yes," replied the Tortoise, "and I get there sooner than you think. I'll run you a race and prove it."

The Hare was much amused at the idea of running a race with the Tortoise, but for the fun of the thing he agreed. So the Fox, who had consented to act as judge, marked the distance and started the runners off.

The Hare was soon far out of sight, and to make the Tortoise feel very deeply how ridiculous it was for him to try a race with a Hare, he lay down beside the course to take a nap until the Tortoise should catch up.

The Tortoise meanwhile kept going slowly but steadily, and, after a time, passed the place where the Hare was sleeping. But the Hare slept on very peacefully; and when at last he did wake up, the Tortoise was near the goal. The Hare now ran his swiftest, but he could not overtake the Tortoise in time.

The race is not always to the swift.

The Hare and the Tortoise