Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for July


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 19 Pinocchio Is Robbed from Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi Grace Darling from Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin Some Unlike Relatives from The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton Burgess How He Came To Know What the Birds Said from The Boy Who Knew What the Birds Said by Padraic Colum King Arthur and His Knights from The Discovery of New Worlds by M. B. Synge Betsy Starts a Sewing Society (Part 1 of 3) from Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher How Ruth Gleaned in the Field of Boaz from Hurlbut's Story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut
Who I Am from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis
Left Alone in the World from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis
An Idle Boy from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis 		Mr. Crab and His House from Seaside and Wayside, Book One by Julia McNair Wright The Gnat and the Bull from The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter I Get Ready for Winter from Robinson Crusoe Written Anew for Children by James Baldwin The Pear Tree from Nursery Tales from Many Lands by Eleanor L. and Ada M. Skinner Jimmy Skunk Takes Word to Mrs. Peter from The Adventures of Prickly Porky by Thornton Burgess Shelter from The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner
Sweet and Low by Alfred Lord Tennyson
Seven Times One by Jean Ingelow 		  Mr. Moon by Bliss Carman Some One by Walter de la Mare Lullaby for Titania by William Shakespeare All Things Bright and Beautiful by John Keble
First row Previous row          Next row Last row
The Aesop for Children  by Milo Winter

The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse

A Town Mouse once visited a relative who lived in the country. For lunch the Country Mouse served wheat stalks, roots, and acorns, with a dash of cold water for drink. The Town Mouse ate very sparingly, nibbling a little of this and a little of that, and by her manner making it very plain that she ate the simple food only to be polite.


[Illustration]

After the meal the friends had a long talk, or rather the Town Mouse talked about her life in the city while the Country Mouse listened. They then went to bed in a cozy nest in the hedgerow and slept in quiet and comfort until morning. In her sleep the Country Mouse dreamed she was a Town Mouse with all the luxuries and delights of city life that her friend had described for her. So the next day when the Town Mouse asked the Country Mouse to go home with her to the city, she gladly said yes.

When they reached the mansion in which the Town Mouse lived, they found on the table in the dining room the leavings of a very fine banquet. There were sweetmeats and jellies, pastries, delicious cheeses, indeed, the most tempting foods that a Mouse can imagine. But just as the Country Mouse was about to nibble a dainty bit of pastry, she heard a Cat mew loudly and scratch at the door. In great fear the Mice scurried to a hiding place, where they lay quite still for a long time, hardly daring to breathe. When at last they ventured back to the feast, the door opened suddenly and in came the servants to clear the table, followed by the House Dog.


[Illustration]

The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse

The Country Mouse stopped in the Town Mouse's den only long enough to pick up her carpet bag and umbrella.

"You may have luxuries and dainties that I have not," she said as she hurried away, "but I prefer my plain food and simple life in the country with the peace and security that go with it."

Poverty with security is better than plenty in the midst of fear and uncertainty.