Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for November


The Cow

The friendly cow all red and white,

I love with all my heart:

She gives me cream with all her might,

To eat with apple-tart.


She wanders lowing here and there,

And yet she cannot stray,

All in the pleasant open air,

The pleasant light of day;


And blown by all the winds that pass

And wet with all the showers,

She walks among the meadow grass

And eats the meadow flowers.

  Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Week 44 Bewildered from The Little Lame Prince by Dinah Maria Mulock Maximilian and the Goose Boy from Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin Farewells and Welcomes from The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton Burgess AIR: THE FIRST STORY from The Forge in the Forest by Padraic Colum
Saint Martin and the Honest Man from The Forge in the Forest by Padraic Colum 		The West Indies from The Discovery of New Worlds by M. B. Synge The Black Gully (Part 1 of 2) from The Bears of Blue River by Charles Major Saint Martin from In God's Garden by Amy Steedman
The Story of Roanoke from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis
The Crowning of Powhatan from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis
Preparing for the Future from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis 		Swallows on the Wires (Part 1 of 3) from Outdoor Visits by Edith M. Patch The Lion, the Bear and the Fox from The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter I See a Strange Sail from Robinson Crusoe Written Anew for Children by James Baldwin The Story of Li'l' Hannibal from Merry Tales by Eleanor L. Skinner Farmer Brown's Boy Chops Down a Tree from The Adventures of Unc' Billy Possum by Thornton Burgess The Stowaway Story from The Sandman: His Sea Stories by Willliam J. Hopkins
The Land of Story-Books by Robert Louis Stevenson How the Leaves Came Down by Susan Coolidge   The Fairies' Shopping by Margaret Deland Alone by Walter de la Mare The Fir-Tree by Edith M. Thomas The Chestnut Burr, Anonymous
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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.