Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for April

Little Jack Horner



The Little Disaster



My Pretty Maid



The Ploughboy in Luck

Alone

A very old woman

Lives in yon house.

The squeak of the cricket,

The stir of the mouse,

Are all she knows

Of the earth and us.


Once she was young,

Would dance and play,

Like many another

Young popinjay;

And run to her mother

At dusk of day.


And colours bright

She delighted in;

The fiddle to hear,

And to lift her chin,

And sing as small

As a twittering wren.


But age apace

Comes at last to all;

And a lone house filled

With the cricket's call;

And the scampering mouse

In the hollow wall.

  Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Week 49 The Bird's Nest from The Birds' Christmas Carol by Kate Douglas Wiggin Antonio Canova from Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin Peter Learns Something about Spooky from The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton Burgess Buying the Porringer from The Christmas Porringer by Evaleen Stein Robber Hans from The Christmas Porringer by Evaleen Stein The Little Colour Grinder from Gabriel and the Hour Book by Evaleen Stein Brother Stephen's Inspiration from Gabriel and the Hour Book by Evaleen Stein
Captain Smith's Speech from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis
The New Laws from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis
The Accident from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis 		Sleepy Bumblebees (Part 1 of 3) from Outdoor Visits by Edith M. Patch Karen Asks about Christmas from The Christmas Porringer by Evaleen Stein I Bring My Tale to a Close from Robinson Crusoe Written Anew for Children by James Baldwin The Jar of Rosemary from The Story-Teller by Maud Lindsay A Christmas Star from The Children's Book of Christmas Stories by Asa Don Dickinson The Privateer Story from The Sandman: His Sea Stories by Willliam J. Hopkins
The Christmas Tree in the Nursery by Richard Watson Gilder An Old Christmas Carol, Anonymous A Song of the Snow by Madison Cawein The Friendly Beasts, Anonymous A Christmas Song by Phillips Brooks Christmas Bells by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Bethlehem, Anonymous
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The Aesop for Children  by Milo Winter

The Hare and the Tortoise

A Hare was making fun of the Tortoise one day for being so slow.

"Do you ever get anywhere?" he asked with a mocking laugh.

"Yes," replied the Tortoise, "and I get there sooner than you think. I'll run you a race and prove it."

The Hare was much amused at the idea of running a race with the Tortoise, but for the fun of the thing he agreed. So the Fox, who had consented to act as judge, marked the distance and started the runners off.

The Hare was soon far out of sight, and to make the Tortoise feel very deeply how ridiculous it was for him to try a race with a Hare, he lay down beside the course to take a nap until the Tortoise should catch up.

The Tortoise meanwhile kept going slowly but steadily, and, after a time, passed the place where the Hare was sleeping. But the Hare slept on very peacefully; and when at last he did wake up, the Tortoise was near the goal. The Hare now ran his swiftest, but he could not overtake the Tortoise in time.

The race is not always to the swift.


[Illustration]

The Hare and the Tortoise