Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for June

The Caterpillar

Brown and furry
Caterpillar in a hurry,
Take your walk
To the shady leaf, or stalk,
Or what not,
Which may be the chosen spot.
No toad spy you,
Hovering bird of prey pass by you;
Spin and die,
To live again a butterfly.

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Week 21	Pinocchio Becomes a Watch-Dog from Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi	Arnold Winkelried from Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin	Bob White and Carol the Meadow Lark from The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton Burgess	The Stone of Victory (Part 2 of 3) from The Boy Who Knew What the Birds Said by Padraic Colum	The Hardy Northmen from The Discovery of New Worlds by M. B. Synge	Betsy Starts a Sewing Society (Part 3 of 3) from Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher	How the Idol Fell Down before the Ark from Hurlbut's Story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut
	The Plans of the London Company from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis The Vessels of the Fleet from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis How I Earned My Passage from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis	Mr. and Mrs. Crab Get a New Coat from Seaside and Wayside, Book One by Julia McNair Wright	The Farmer and the Stork from The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter	I Sow Some Grain from Robinson Crusoe Written Anew for Children by James Baldwin	The Wee Bannock from Nursery Tales from Many Lands by Eleanor L. and Ada M. Skinner	Sammy Jay Delivers His Message from The Adventures of Prickly Porky by Thornton Burgess	Housekeeping from The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner
	Foreign Lands by Robert Louis Stevenson	The Swallow's Nest by Edwin Arnold		Remorse by Sydney Dayre	Will Ever? by Walter de la Mare	The Light-Hearted Fairy, Anonymous	Foreign Lands by Robert Louis Stevenson

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.

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.

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.