Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for December


The Land of Story-Books

At evening when the lamp is lit,

Around the fire my parents sit;

They sit at home and talk and sing,

And do not play at anything.


Now, with my little gun, I crawl

All in the dark along the wall,

And follow round the forest track

Away behind the sofa back.


There, in the night, where none can spy,

All in my hunter's camp I lie,

And play at books that I have read

Till it is time to go to bed.


These are the hills, these are the woods,

These are my starry solitudes;

And there the river by whose brink

The roaring lions come to drink.


I see the others far away

As if in firelit camp they lay,

And I, like to an Indian scout,

Around their party prowled about.


So when my nurse comes in for me,

Home I return across the sea,

And go to bed with backward looks

At my dear land of Story-Books.

  Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Week 51 Some Other Birds Are Taught To Fly from The Birds' Christmas Carol by Kate Douglas Wiggin Mignon from Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin More Folks in Red from The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton Burgess Grandmother and Karen from The Christmas Porringer by Evaleen Stein Gabriel's Prayer from Gabriel and the Hour Book by Evaleen Stein The Book Goes to Lady Anne from Gabriel and the Hour Book by Evaleen Stein Lady Anne Writes to the King from Gabriel and the Hour Book by Evaleen Stein
Our Courage Gives Out from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis
Abandoning Jamestown from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis 		A Winter Butterfly (Part 3 of 3) from Outdoor Visits by Edith M. Patch At the Rag-Market from The Christmas Porringer by Evaleen Stein Tiny Tim from For the Children's Hour by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey How The Good Gifts Were Used by Two from The Wonder Clock by Howard Pyle The First Christmas Roses from Christmas in Legend and Story: A Book for Boys and Girls by Elva S. Smith The Pilot Story from The Sandman: His Sea Stories by Willliam J. Hopkins
Christmas Day and Every Day by George MacDonald Carol by Kenneth Grahame The Frost King by Mary Mapes Dodge
Santa Claus, Anonymous 		A Christmas Carol by Christina Georgina Rossetti As Joseph Was A-Walking, Anonymous How Far Is It to Bethlehem? by Frances Chesterton
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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.


[Illustration]

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.


[Illustration]