Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for December

My Shadow

I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,

And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.

He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head;

And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed.

The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow—

Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow;

For he sometimes shoots up taller like an india-rubber ball,

And he sometimes gets so little that there's none of him at all.

He hasn't got a notion of how children ought to play,

And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way.

He stays so close beside me, he's a coward, you can see;

I'd think shame to stick to nursie as that shadow sticks to me!

One morning, very early, before the sun was up,

I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup;

But my lazy little shadow, like an arrant sleepy-head,

Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.

	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

The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter

The Hare and the Tortoise

A Hare was making fun of the Tortoise one day for being so slow.

"Do you ever get anywhere?" he asked with a mocking laugh.

"Yes," replied the Tortoise, "and I get there sooner than you think. I'll run you a race and prove it."

The Hare was much amused at the idea of running a race with the Tortoise, but for the fun of the thing he agreed. So the Fox, who had consented to act as judge, marked the distance and started the runners off.

The Hare was soon far out of sight, and to make the Tortoise feel very deeply how ridiculous it was for him to try a race with a Hare, he lay down beside the course to take a nap until the Tortoise should catch up.

The Tortoise meanwhile kept going slowly but steadily, and, after a time, passed the place where the Hare was sleeping. But the Hare slept on very peacefully; and when at last he did wake up, the Tortoise was near the goal. The Hare now ran his swiftest, but he could not overtake the Tortoise in time.

The race is not always to the swift.

The Hare and the Tortoise