Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for January

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 48	Drooping Wings from The Birds' Christmas Carol by Kate Douglas Wiggin	Casabianca from Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin	Some More Friends Come with the Snow from The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton Burgess	Why the Sea Is Salt from Fairy Tales Too Good To Miss—Into the Woods by Lisa M. Ripperton	Discovery of the Pacific from The Discovery of New Worlds by M. B. Synge	A Castle on Brandywine (Part 2 of 2) from The Bears of Blue River by Charles Major	Solomon on David's Throne from Hurlbut's Story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut
	Dreams of the Future from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis A Plague of Rats from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis Treachery during Captain Smith's Absence from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis	Fall Picnics from Outdoor Visits by Edith M. Patch	The Fox and the Stork from The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter	I Have a New Suit of Clothes from Robinson Crusoe Written Anew for Children by James Baldwin	The Hill from The Golden Windows by Laura E. Richards	Happy Jack Squirrel Helps Unc' Billy Possum from The Adventures of Unc' Billy Possum by Thornton Burgess	The Trafalgar Story from The Sandman: His Sea Stories by Willliam J. Hopkins The Cargo Story from The Sandman: His Sea Stories by Willliam J. Hopkins
	The Willow Man by Juliana Horatia Ewing	Heigho, My Dearie by Eugene Field	A Thanksgiving Fable by Oliver Herford	A Tragic Story by Albert von Chamisso	The Children of Stare by Walter de la Mare	Humility by Robert Herrick	Old Granny Dusk by James Whitcomb Riley

The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter

Belling the Cat

The mice once called a meeting to decide on a plan to free themselves of their enemy, the Cat. At least they wished to find some way of knowing when she was coming, so they might have time to run away. Indeed, something had to be done, for they lived in such constant fear of her claws that they hardly dared stir from their dens by night or day.

Many plans were discussed, but none of them was thought good enough. At last a very young Mouse got up and said:

"I have a plan that seems very simple, but I know it will be successful. All we have to do is to hang a bell about the Cat's neck. When we hear the bell ringing we will know immediately that our enemy is coming."

All the Mice were much surprised that they had not thought of such a plan before. But in the midst of the rejoicing over their good fortune, an old Mouse arose and said:

"I will say that the plan of the young Mouse is very good. But let me ask one question Who will bell the Cat?"

It is one thing to say that something should be done, but quite a different matter to do it.