Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for September


Wynken, Blynken, and Nod

Wynken, Blynken, and Nod one night

Sailed off in a wooden shoe—

Sailed on a river of crystal light,

Into a sea of dew.

"Where are you going, and what do you wish?"

The old moon asked the three.

"We have come to fish for the herring-fish

That live in this beautiful sea;

Nets of silver and gold have we!"

Said Wynken,

Blynken,

And Nod.


The old moon laughed and sang a song,

As they rocked in the wooden shoe,

And the wind that sped them all night long

Ruffled the waves of dew.

The little stars were the herring-fish

That lived in the beautiful sea—

"Now cast your nets wherever you wish,—

Never afeard are we!"

So cried the stars to the fishermen three:

Wynken,

Blynken,

And Nod.


All night long their nets they threw

To the stars in the twinkling foam,—

Then down from the skies came the wooden shoe,

Bringing the fishermen home;

'Twas all so pretty a sail, it seemed

As if it could not be,

And some folks thought 'twas a dream they'd dreamed

Of sailing that beautiful sea—

But I shall name you the fishermen three:

Wynken,

Blynken,

And Nod.


Wynken and Blynken are two little eyes,

And Nod is a little head,

And the wooden shoe that sailed the skies

Is a wee one's trundle-bed.

So shut your eyes while Mother sings

Of wonderful sights that be,

And you shall see the beautiful things

As you rock in the misty sea,

Where the old shoe rocked the fishermen three—

Wynken,

Blynken,

And Nod.

  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 Tortoise and the Ducks

The Tortoise, you know, carries his house on his back. No matter how hard he tries, he cannot leave home. They say that Jupiter punished him so, because he was such a lazy stay-at-home that he would not go to Jupiter's wedding, even when especially invited.

After many years, Tortoise began to wish he had gone to that wedding. When he saw how gaily the birds flew about and how the Hare and the Chipmunk and all the other animals ran nimbly by, always eager to see everything there was to be seen, the Tortoise felt very sad and discontented. He wanted to see the world too, and there he was with a house on his back and little short legs that could hardly drag him along.

One day he met a pair of Ducks and told them all his trouble.

"We can help you to see the world," said the Ducks. "Take hold of this stick with your teeth and we will carry you far up in the air where you can see the whole countryside. But keep quiet or you will be sorry."

The Tortoise was very glad indeed. He seized the stick firmly with his teeth, the two Ducks took hold of it one at each end, and away they sailed up toward the clouds.


[Illustration]

Just then a Crow flew by. He was very much astonished at the strange sight and cried:

"This must surely be the King of Tortoises!"

"Why certainly—" began the Tortoise.

But as he opened his mouth to say these foolish words he lost his hold on the stick, and down he fell to the ground, where he was dashed to pieces on a rock.

Foolish curiosity and vanity often lead to misfortune.