Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for December

The Moon's the North Wind's Cooky

The Moon's the North Wind's cooky.

He bites it, day by day,

Until there's but a rim of scraps

That crumble all away.

The South Wind is a baker.

He kneads clouds in his den,

And bakes a crisp new moon that . . . greedy

North . . . Wind . . . eats . . . again!

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Week 48	Drooping Wings from The Birds' Christmas Carol by Kate Douglas Wiggin	Casabianca from Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin	Some More Friends Come with the Snow from The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton Burgess	The Three Purses from Good Stories for Great Holidays by Frances Jenkins Olcott	Discovery of the Pacific from The Discovery of New Worlds by M. B. Synge	A Castle on Brandywine (Part 2 of 2) from The Bears of Blue River by Charles Major	Solomon on David's Throne from Hurlbut's Story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut
	Dreams of the Future from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis A Plague of Rats from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis Treachery during Captain Smith's Absence from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis	Fall Picnics from Outdoor Visits by Edith M. Patch	The Fox and the Stork from The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter	I Have a New Suit of Clothes from Robinson Crusoe Written Anew for Children by James Baldwin	The Hill from The Golden Windows by Laura E. Richards	Happy Jack Squirrel Helps Unc' Billy Possum from The Adventures of Unc' Billy Possum by Thornton Burgess	The Trafalgar Story from The Sandman: His Sea Stories by Willliam J. Hopkins The Cargo Story from The Sandman: His Sea Stories by Willliam J. Hopkins
	The Willow Man by Juliana Horatia Ewing	Heigho, My Dearie by Eugene Field	A Thanksgiving Fable by Oliver Herford	A Tragic Story by Albert von Chamisso	The Children of Stare by Walter de la Mare	Humility by Robert Herrick	Old Granny Dusk by James Whitcomb Riley

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.

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.