Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for December

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

The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter

The Shepherd Boy and the Wolf

A Shepherd Boy tended his master's Sheep near a dark forest not far from the village. Soon he found life in the pasture very dull. All he could do to amuse himself was to talk to his dog or play on his shepherd's pipe.

One day as he sat watching the Sheep and the quiet forest, and thinking what he would do should he see a Wolf, he thought of a plan to amuse himself.

His Master had told him to call for help should a Wolf attack the flock, and the Villagers would drive it away. So now, though he had not seen anything that even looked like a Wolf, he ran toward the village shouting at the top of his voice, "Wolf! Wolf!"

As he expected, the Villagers who heard the cry dropped their work and ran in great excitement to the pasture. But when they got there they found the Boy doubled up with laughter at the trick he had played on them.

A few days later the Shepherd Boy again shouted, "Wolf! Wolf!" Again the Villagers ran to help him, only to be laughed at again. Then one evening as the sun was setting behind the forest and the shadows were creeping out over the pasture, a Wolf really did spring from the underbrush and fall upon the Sheep.

In terror the Boy ran toward the village shouting "Wolf! Wolf!" But though the Villagers heard the cry, they did not run to help him as they had before. "He cannot fool us again," they said.

The Wolf killed a great many of the Boy's sheep and then slipped away into the forest.

Liars are not believed even when they speak the truth.