Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for January

The Sugar-Plum Tree

Have you ever heard of the Sugar-Plum Tree?
'Tis a marvel of great renown!
It blooms on the shore of the Lollipop sea
In the garden of Shut-Eye Town;
The fruit that it bears is so wondrously sweet
(As those who have tasted it say)
That good little children have only to eat
Of that fruit to be happy next day.

When you've got to the tree, you would have a hard time
To capture the fruit which I sing;
The tree is so tall that no person could climb
To the boughs where the sugar-plums swing!
But up in that tree sits a chocolate cat,
And a gingerbread dog prowls below—
And this is the way you contrive to get at
Those sugar-plums tempting you so:

You say but the word to that gingerbread dog
And he barks with such terrible zest
That the chocolate cat is at once all agog,
As her swelling proportions attest.
And the chocolate cat goes cavorting around
From this leafy limb unto that,
And the sugar-plums tumble, of course, to the ground—
Hurrah for that chocolate cat!

There are marshmallows, gumdrops, and peppermint canes,
With stripings of scarlet or gold,
And you carry away of the treasure that rains
As much as your apron can hold!
So come, little child, cuddle closer to me
In your dainty white nightcap and gown,
And I'll rock you away to that Sugar-Plum Tree
In the garden of Shut-Eye Town.

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Week 9	Pinocchio Sells His Spelling-Book from Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi	The Black Douglas from Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin	The Old Orchard Bully from The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton Burgess	Water for the King's Son from The Girl Who Sat by the Ashes by Padraic Colum	Voyage and Shipwreck from The Discovery of New Worlds by M. B. Synge	Betsy Goes to School (Part 1 of 2) from Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher	The Present That Ehud Brought to King Eglon from Hurlbut's Story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut
	The Sea Fight from Viking Tales by Jennie Hall	A Frog Chorus (Part 2 of 3) from Outdoor Visits by Edith M. Patch	Hercules and the Wagoner from The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter	I Make Me a Raft from Robinson Crusoe Written Anew for Children by James Baldwin	Daedalus and Icarus from A Child's Book of Myths and Enchantment Tales by Margaret Evans Price	Jimmy Skunk and Unc' Billy Possum Tell Stories from The Adventures of Prickly Porky by Thornton Burgess	The Fitting Story from The Sandman: His Ship Stories by Willliam J. Hopkins
	The Fairies by William Allingham	The Owl and the Pussy-Cat by Edward Lear	Eletelephony by Laura E. Richards	Nonsense Verse by Edward Lear	Nobody Knows by Walter de la Mare	The Four Winds by Frank Dempster Sherman	The First Bluebird by James Whitcomb Riley

The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter

The Shepherd Boy and the Wolf

A Shepherd Boy tended his master's Sheep near a dark forest not far from the village. Soon he found life in the pasture very dull. All he could do to amuse himself was to talk to his dog or play on his shepherd's pipe.

One day as he sat watching the Sheep and the quiet forest, and thinking what he would do should he see a Wolf, he thought of a plan to amuse himself.

His Master had told him to call for help should a Wolf attack the flock, and the Villagers would drive it away. So now, though he had not seen anything that even looked like a Wolf, he ran toward the village shouting at the top of his voice, "Wolf! Wolf!"

As he expected, the Villagers who heard the cry dropped their work and ran in great excitement to the pasture. But when they got there they found the Boy doubled up with laughter at the trick he had played on them.

A few days later the Shepherd Boy again shouted, "Wolf! Wolf!" Again the Villagers ran to help him, only to be laughed at again. Then one evening as the sun was setting behind the forest and the shadows were creeping out over the pasture, a Wolf really did spring from the underbrush and fall upon the Sheep.

In terror the Boy ran toward the village shouting "Wolf! Wolf!" But though the Villagers heard the cry, they did not run to help him as they had before. "He cannot fool us again," they said.

The Wolf killed a great many of the Boy's sheep and then slipped away into the forest.

Liars are not believed even when they speak the truth.