Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet



Songs for December


The Owl and the Pussy-Cat

The Owl and the Pussy-Cat went to sea

In a beautiful pea-green boat:

They took some honey, and plenty of money

Wrapped up in a five-pound note.

The Owl looked up to the stars above,

And sang to a small guitar,

"O lovely Pussy, O Pussy, my love,

What a beautiful Pussy you are,

You are,

You are!

What a beautiful Pussy you are!"


Pussy said to the Owl, "You elegant fowl,

How charmingly sweet you sing!

Oh! let us be married; too long we have tarried:

But what shall we do for a ring?"

They sailed away, for a year and a day,

To the land where the bong-tree grows;

And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood,

With a ring at the end of his nose,

His nose,

His nose,

With a ring at the end of his nose.


"Dear Pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling

Your ring?" Said the Piggy, "I will."

So they took it away, and were married next day

By the Turkey who lives on the hill.

They dined on mince and slices of quince,

Which they ate with a runcible spoon;

And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,

They danced by the light of the moon,

The moon,

The moon,

They danced by the light of the moon.



  Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Week 7 Geppetto Gives Pinocchio His Breakfast from Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi A Story of Robin Hood from Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin The Thaw from The Seasons: Winter by Jane Marcet Crow-feather-Cloak Again (Part 2 of 2) from The Girl Who Sat by the Ashes by Padraic Colum The Roman World from The Discovery of New Worlds by M. B. Synge A Short Morning (Part 1 of 2) from Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher The Story of an Altar beside the River from Hurlbut's Story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut
Harald's Battle from Viking Tales by Jennie Hall Tracks on the Snow from Outdoor Visits by Edith M. Patch The Eagle and the Jackdaw from The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter I Find a Strange Lodging Place from Robinson Crusoe Written Anew for Children by James Baldwin Phaeton and the Chariot of the Sun from A Child's Book of Myths and Enchantment Tales by Margaret Evans Price Jimmy Skunk Calls on Prickly Porky from The Adventures of Prickly Porky by Thornton Burgess The Captain Solomon Story from The Sandman: His Ship Stories by Willliam J. Hopkins
The World's Music by Gabriel Setoun The Sailors' Delight, Anonymous A Lobster Quadrille by Lewis Carroll The Watchman's Song, Anonymous The Cupboard by Walter de la Mare To a Child: Written in Her Album by William Wordsworth Naughty Claude by James Whitcomb Riley
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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