Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for April

Little Jack Horner



The Little Disaster



My Pretty Maid



The Ploughboy in Luck

Spring

Sound the flute!

Now it's mute.

Birds delight,

Day and night.

Nightingale,

In the dale,

Lark in sky—

Merrily,

Merrily, merrily to welcome in the year.


Little boy,

Full of joy;

Little girl,

Sweet and small;

Cock does crow,

So do you;

Merry voice,

Infant noise;

Merrily, merrily to welcome in the year.


Little lamb,

Here I am;

Come and lick

My white neck;

Let me pull

Your soft wool;

Let me kiss

Your soft face;

Merrily, merrily we welcome in the year.

  Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Week 6 Pinocchio Falls Asleep from Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi King John and the Abbott from Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin Tea Table Talk from The Seasons: Winter by Jane Marcet Crow-feather-Cloak Again (Part 1 of 2) from The Girl Who Sat by the Ashes by Padraic Colum Pax Romana from On the Shores of the Great Sea by M. B. Synge Betsy Holds the Reins (Part 3 of 3) from Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher The Avenger of Blood and the Cities of Refuge from Hurlbut's Story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut
Harald Is King from Viking Tales by Jennie Hall Tamarack (Part 3 of 3) from Outdoor Visits by Edith M. Patch Belling the Cat from The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter I Am Cast upon a Strange Shore from Robinson Crusoe Written Anew for Children by James Baldwin Apollo and Diana from A Child's Book of Myths and Enchantment Tales by Margaret Evans Price Peter Has To Tell His Story Many Times from The Adventures of Prickly Porky by Thornton Burgess The Far Country Story from The Sandman: His Ship Stories by Willliam J. Hopkins
The Babie by Hugh Miller 		The Sugar-Plum Tree by Eugene Field The Owl and the Pussy-Cat by Edward Lear Chanticleer by Celia Thaxter Hide and Seek by Walter de la Mare A Fable by Ralph Waldo Emerson America by Samuel Francis Smith
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Uncle Remus—His Songs and His Sayings  by Joel Chandler Harris

The Wonderful Tar-Baby Story

"D IDN'T the fox never catch the rabbit, Uncle Remus?" asked the little boy the next evening.

"He come mighty nigh it, honey, sho's you born—Brer Fox did. One day atter Brer Rabbit fool 'im wid dat calamus root, Brer Fox went ter wuk en got 'im some tar, en mix it wid some turkentime, en fix up a contrapshun w'at he call a Tar-Baby, en he tuck dish yer Tar-Baby en he sot 'er in de big road, en den he lay off in de bushes fer to see what de news wuz gwine ter be. En he didn't hatter wait long, nudder, kaze bimeby here come Brer Rabbit pacin' down de road—lippity-clippity, clippity-lippity—dez ez sassy ez a jay-bird. Brer Fox, he lay low. Brer Rabbit come prancin' 'long twel he spy de Tar-Baby, en den he fotch up on his behime legs like he wuz 'stonished. De Tar Baby, she sot dar, she did, en Brer Fox, he lay low.

" 'Mawnin'!' sez Brer Rabbit, sezee—'nice wedder dis mawnin',' sezee.

"Tar-Baby ain't sayin' nuthin', en Brer Fox he lay low.

" 'How duz yo' sym'tums seem ter segashuate?' sez Brer Rabbit, sezee.

"Brer Fox, he wink his eye slow, en lay low, en de Tar-Baby, she ain't sayin' nuthin'.

" 'How you come on, den? Is you deaf?' sez Brer Rabbit, sezee. 'Kaze if you is, I kin holler louder,' sezee.

"Tar-Baby stay still, en Brer Fox, he lay low.

" 'You er stuck up, dat's w'at you is,' says Brer Rabbit, sezee, 'en I'm gwine ter kyore you, dat's w'at I'm a gwine ter do,' sezee.

"Brer Fox, he sorter chuckle in his stummick, he did, but Tar-Baby ain't sayin' nothin'.

" 'I'm gwine ter larn you how ter talk ter 'spectubble folks ef hit's de las' ack,' sez Brer Rabbit, sezee. 'Ef you don't take off dat hat en tell me howdy, I'm gwine ter bus' you wide open,' sezee.

"Tar-Baby stay still, en Brer Fox, he lay low.

"Brer Rabbit keep on axin' 'im, en de Tar-Baby, she keep on sayin' nothin', twel present'y Brer Rabbit draw back wid his fis', he did, en blip he tuck 'er side er de head. Right dar's whar he broke his merlasses jug. His fis' stuck, en he can't pull loose. De tar hilt 'im. But Tar-Baby, she stay still, en Brer Fox, he lay low.

" 'Ef you don't lemme loose, I'll knock you agin,' sez Brer Rabbit, sezee, en wid dat he fotch 'er a wipe wid de udder han', en dat stuck. Tar-Baby, she ain't sayin' nuthin', en Brer Fox, he lay low.

" 'Tu'n me loose, fo' I kick de natchul stuffin' outen you,' sez Brer Rabbit, sezee, but de Tar-Baby, she ain't sayin' nuthin'. She des hilt on, en de Brer Rabbit lose de use er his feet in de same way. Brer Fox, he lay low. Den Brer Rabbit squall out dat ef de Tar-Baby don't tu'n 'im loose he butt 'er cranksided. En den he butted, en his head got stuck. Den Brer Fox, he sa'ntered fort', lookin' dez ez innercent ez wunner yo' mammy's mockin'-birds.

" 'Howdy, Brer Rabbit,' sez Brer Fox, sezee. 'You look sorter stuck up dis mawnin',' sezee, en den he rolled on de groun', en laft en laft twel he couldn't laff no mo'. 'I speck you'll take dinner wid me dis time, Brer Rabbit. I done laid in some calamus root, en I ain't gwineter take no skuse,' sez Brer Fox, sezee."

Here Uncle Remus paused, and drew a two-pound yam out of the ashes.

"Did the fox eat the rabbit?" asked the little boy to whom the story had been told.

"Dat's all de fur de tale goes," replied the old man. "He mout, an den agin he moutent. Some say Judge B'ar come 'long en loosed 'im—some say he didn't. I hear Miss Sally callin'. You better run 'long."