Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for June


My Shadow

I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,

And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.

He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head;

And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed.


The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow—

Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow;

For he sometimes shoots up taller like an india-rubber ball,

And he sometimes gets so little that there's none of him at all.


He hasn't got a notion of how children ought to play,

And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way.

He stays so close beside me, he's a coward, you can see;

I'd think shame to stick to nursie as that shadow sticks to me!


One morning, very early, before the sun was up,

I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup;

But my lazy little shadow, like an arrant sleepy-head,

Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.

  Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Week 5 Pinocchio Is Hungry from Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi The White Ship from Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin Sliding on the Ice from The Seasons: Winter by Jane Marcet Fire for the King's Son from The Girl Who Sat by the Ashes by Padraic Colum The Empire of Rome from On the Shores of the Great Sea by M. B. Synge Betsy Holds the Reins (Part 2 of 3) from Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher The Old Man Who Fought against the Giants from Hurlbut's Story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut
Foes'-fear from Viking Tales by Jennie Hall Balsam Fir (Part 2 of 3) from Outdoor Visits by Edith M. Patch The Dog, the Cock, and the Fox from The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter I Am Shipwrecked from Robinson Crusoe Written Anew for Children by James Baldwin Hercules from A Child's Book of Myths and Enchantment Tales by Margaret Evans Price Peter Rabbit Tells His Story from The Adventures of Prickly Porky by Thornton Burgess The Wedding Story from The Sandman: His Ship Stories by Willliam J. Hopkins
A Sea Song from the Shore by James Whitcomb Riley How Many Seconds in a Minute? by Christina Georgina Rossetti The Monkeys and the Crocodile by Laura E. Richards Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost The Song of the Soldiers by Walter de la Mare The Snowdrop by Alfred Lord Tennyson Falling Snow, Anonymous
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The Aesop for Children  by Milo Winter

The Ass and the Load of Salt

A Merchant, driving his Ass homeward from the seashore with a heavy load of salt, came to a river crossed by a shallow ford. They had crossed this river many times before without accident, but this time the Ass slipped and fell when halfway over. And when the Merchant at last got him to his feet, much of the salt had melted away. Delighted to find how much lighter his burden had become, the Ass finished the journey very gayly.

Next day the Merchant went for another load of salt. On the way home the Ass, remembering what had happened at the ford, purposely let himself fall into the water, and again got rid of most of his burden.

The angry Merchant immediately turned about and drove the Ass back to the seashore, where he loaded him with two great baskets of sponges. At the ford the Ass again tumbled over; but when he had scrambled to his feet, it was a very disconsolate Ass that dragged himself homeward under a load ten times heavier than before.

The same measures will not suit all circumstances.


[Illustration]

The Ass and the Load of Salt