Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for December




Elf and Dormouse

Under a toadstool

Crept a wee Elf,

Out of the rain

To shelter himself.


Under the toadstool,

Sound asleep,

Sat a big Dormouse

All in a heap.


Trembled the wee Elf

Frightened, and yet

Fearing to fly away

Lest he get wet.


To the next shelter

Maybe a mile

Sudden the wee Elf

Smiled a wee smile.


Tugged till the toadstool

Toppled in two

Holding it over him

Gayly he flew.


Soon he was safe home,

Dry as could be.

Soon woke the Dormouse

"Good gracious me!


Where is my toadstool!"

Loud he lamented,

And that's how umbrellas

First were invented.

  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 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