Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet



Songs for September




The Swing

How do you like to go up in a swing,

Up in the air so blue?

Oh! I do think it the pleasantest thing

Ever a child can do!


Up in the air and over the wall,

Till I can see so wide,

Rivers and trees and cattle and all

Over the countryside—


Till I look down on the garden green,

Down on the roof so brown—

Up in the air I go flying again,

Up in the air and down!


  Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Week 28 Pinocchio Is in Danger of Being Fried from Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi Horatius at the Bridge from Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin A Fishing Party from The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton Burgess The Hen-wife's Son and the Princess Bright Brow (Part 2 of 3) from The Boy Who Knew What the Birds Said by Padraic Colum Queen of the Adriatic from The Discovery of New Worlds by M. B. Synge "Understood Aunt Frances" (Part 2 of 4) from Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher Saul's Great Sin and His Great Loss from Hurlbut's Story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut
Exploring the Country from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis
People Land from the Ships from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis
Captain Smith Proven Innocent from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis
Helping Mother Oriole from Outdoor Visits by Edith M. Patch The Oak and the Reeds from The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter I Have a Perilous Adventure from Robinson Crusoe Written Anew for Children by James Baldwin Lambikin from Nursery Tales from Many Lands by Eleanor L. and Ada M. Skinner Bobby Coon Is Waked Up from The Adventures of Unc' Billy Possum by Thornton Burgess Ginseng from The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner
Queen Mab by Thomas Hood The Fly-Away Horse by Eugene Field   A Sad Little Lass by Margaret Johnson King David by Walter de la Mare Hiawatha's Sailing by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow A Lesson of Mercy by Alice Cary
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The Aesop for Children  by Milo Winter

The Tortoise and the Ducks

The Tortoise, you know, carries his house on his back. No matter how hard he tries, he cannot leave home. They say that Jupiter punished him so, because he was such a lazy stay-at-home that he would not go to Jupiter's wedding, even when especially invited.

After many years, Tortoise began to wish he had gone to that wedding. When he saw how gaily the birds flew about and how the Hare and the Chipmunk and all the other animals ran nimbly by, always eager to see everything there was to be seen, the Tortoise felt very sad and discontented. He wanted to see the world too, and there he was with a house on his back and little short legs that could hardly drag him along.

One day he met a pair of Ducks and told them all his trouble.

"We can help you to see the world," said the Ducks. "Take hold of this stick with your teeth and we will carry you far up in the air where you can see the whole countryside. But keep quiet or you will be sorry."

The Tortoise was very glad indeed. He seized the stick firmly with his teeth, the two Ducks took hold of it one at each end, and away they sailed up toward the clouds.


[Illustration]

Just then a Crow flew by. He was very much astonished at the strange sight and cried:

"This must surely be the King of Tortoises!"

"Why certainly—" began the Tortoise.

But as he opened his mouth to say these foolish words he lost his hold on the stick, and down he fell to the ground, where he was dashed to pieces on a rock.

Foolish curiosity and vanity often lead to misfortune.