Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for July


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 8 Geppetto Makes Pinocchio New Feet from Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi Bruce and the Spider from Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin Jenny Wren Arrives from The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton Burgess Through the Three Woods and to the King's Castle from The Girl Who Sat by the Ashes by Padraic Colum A Great World Power from The Discovery of New Worlds by M. B. Synge A Short Morning (Part 2 of 2) from Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher Saint David from Our Island Saints by Amy Steedman
Gyda's Saucy Message from Viking Tales by Jennie Hall The Call of Wild Geese (Part 1 of 3) from Outdoor Visits by Edith M. Patch The Boy and the Filberts from The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter I Visit the Wreck from Robinson Crusoe Written Anew for Children by James Baldwin Arcas and Callisto from A Child's Book of Myths and Enchantment Tales by Margaret Evans Price Prickly Porky Nearly Chokes from The Adventures of Prickly Porky by Thornton Burgess The Unloading Story from The Sandman: His Ship Stories by Willliam J. Hopkins
The Night Wind by Eugene Field Humility by Robert Herrick Disobedience by A. A. Milne The Sea, Anonymous Unstooping by Walter de la Mare God Bless Our Native Land by C. T. Brooks Lullaby of an Infant Chief by Sir Walter Scott
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The Aesop for Children  by Milo Winter

The Fox and the Grapes

A Fox one day spied a beautiful bunch of ripe grapes hanging from a vine trained along the branches of a tree. The grapes seemed ready to burst with juice, and the Fox's mouth watered as he gazed longingly at them.


[Illustration]

The bunch hung from a high branch, and the Fox had to jump for it, The first time he jumped he missed it by a long way. So he walked off a short distance and took a running leap at it, only to fall short once more. Again and again he tried, but in vain.

Now he sat down and looked at the grapes in disgust.

"What a fool I am," he said. "Here I am wearing myself out to get a bunch of sour grapes that are not worth gaping for."

And off he walked very, very scornfully.

There are many who pretend to despise and belittle that which is beyond their reach.