Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet



Songs for April

Little Jack Horner



The Little Disaster



My Pretty Maid



The Ploughboy in Luck




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 37 The Christening from The Little Lame Prince by Dinah Maria Mulock Socrates and His House from Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin Jenny Wren's Cousins from The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton Burgess WATER: THE SECOND STORY from The Forge in the Forest by Padraic Colum
King Fergus and the Water-Horse from The Forge in the Forest by Padraic Colum
Vasco da Gama's Great Voyage from The Discovery of New Worlds by M. B. Synge The One-Eared Bear (Part 1 of 2) from The Bears of Blue River by Charles Major The Cripple at the King's Table from Hurlbut's Story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut
A Crude Kind of Chimney from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis
Cooking a Turkey from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis
Candles or Rushlights from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis
Berries for Bluebirds from Outdoor Visits by Edith M. Patch The Lion and the Gnat from The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter I Discover a Wreck from Robinson Crusoe Written Anew for Children by James Baldwin The Forest Bailiff from Merry Tales by Eleanor L. Skinner Old Mrs. Possum Grows Worried from The Adventures of Unc' Billy Possum by Thornton Burgess The Seaweed Story from The Sandman: His Sea Stories by Willliam J. Hopkins
Where Go the Boats? by Robert Louis Stevenson The Sun Travels by Robert Louis Stevenson   John Grumblie, Anonymous The Song of Shadows by Walter de la Mare The Babie by Hugh Miller Lady Moon by Richard Monckton Milnes
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The Aesop for Children  by Milo Winter

The Fox and the Stork

The Fox one day thought of a plan to amuse himself at the expense of the Stork, at whose odd appearance he was always laughing.

"You must come and dine with me today," he said to the Stork, smiling to himself at the trick he was going to play. The Stork gladly accepted the invitation and arrived in good time and with a very good appetite.

For dinner the Fox served soup. But it was set out in a very shallow dish, and all the Stork could do was to wet the very tip of his bill. Not a drop of soup could he get. But the Fox lapped it up easily, and, to increase the disappointment of the Stork, made a great show of enjoyment.


[Illustration]

The hungry Stork was much displeased at the trick, but he was a calm, even-tempered fellow and saw no good in flying into a rage. Instead, not long afterward, he invited the Fox to dine with him in turn. The Fox arrived promptly at the time that had been set, and the Stork served a fish dinner that had a very appetizing smell. But it was served in a tall jar with a very narrow neck. The Stork could easily get at the food with his long bill, but all the Fox could do was to lick the outside of the jar, and sniff at the delicious odor. And when the Fox lost his temper, the Stork said calmly:

Do not play tricks on your neighbors unless you can stand the same treatment yourself.


[Illustration]