Third Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for May


The Land of Counterpane

When I was sick and lay a-bed,

I had two pillows at my head,

And all my toys beside me lay,

To keep me happy all the day.


And sometimes for an hour or so

I watched my leaden soldiers go,

With different uniforms and drills,

Among the bed-clothes, through the hills;


And sometimes sent my ships in fleets

All up and down among the sheets;

Or brought my trees and houses out,

And planted cities all about.


I was the giant great and still

That sits upon the pillow-hill,

And sees before him, dale and plain,

The pleasant land of counterpane.

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Week 48 How Life Went On at Grandfather's from Heidi by Johanna Spyri Edward III of Windsor—The Battle of Poitiers from Our Island Story by H. E. Marshall Following the Deer (Part 6 of 6) from Secrets of the Woods by William J. Long The Siege of Orleans from The Beautiful Story of Joan of Arc by Viola Ruth Lowe The House of Orange from The Awakening of Europe by M. B. Synge The Wild Swans from Fairy Tales Too Good To Miss—Aboard the Ship by Lisa M. Ripperton The Nobleman Who Built the Wall of Jerusalem from Hurlbut's Story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut
Which was the King? from Fifty Famous People by James Baldwin Little Snowshoes from Holiday Hill by Edith M. Patch Abraham Lincoln (Part 3 of 4) from Four Great Americans by James Baldwin The Bull and the Goat from The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter Atalanta and Hippomenes from A Child's Book of Myths and Enchantment Tales by Margaret Evans Price A Swarm of Flies from Seaside and Wayside, Book Two by Julia McNair Wright The Return of Ulysses (Part 3 of 3) from The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
Abou Ben Adhem by Leigh Hunt To Winter by William Blake A Canadian Folk-Song by William Wilfred Campbell The First Snowfall by James Russell Lowell The Elf Tree from Poems by Rachel Lyman Field The Inchcape Rock by Robert Southey King Bruce by Eliza Cook
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READING-LITERATURE: Third Reader  by Harriette Taylor Treadwell

The Fox as Herdsman

Once on a time there was a woman who went out to hire a herdsman, and she met a bear.

"Whither away, Goody?" said Bruin.

"Oh, I'm going out to hire a herdsman," answered the woman.

"Why not have me for a herdsman?" said Bruin.

"Well, why not," said the woman, "if you only know how to call the flock? Just let me hear you call."

"Ow, Ow!" growled the bear.

"No, no! I won't have you," said the woman as soon as she heard him say that, and off she went on her way.

When she had gone a bit farther she met a wolf.

"Whither away, Goody?" said the wolf.

"Oh," said she, "I'm going out to hire a herdsman."

"Why not have me for a herdsman?" said the wolf.

"Well, why not, if you can only call the flock? Let me hear you call," said she.

"Uh, Uh!" said the wolf.

"No, no!" said the woman, "you'll never do for me."

Well, after she had gone a while longer she met a fox.

"Whither away, Goody?" asked the fox.

"Oh, I'm just going out to hire a herdsman," said the woman.

"Why not have me for a herdsman?" asked the fox.

"Well, why not," said she, "if you only know how to call the flock? Let me hear you call."

"Dil-dal-holom!" sang out the fox in a fine clear voice.

"Yes, I'll have you for my herdsman," said the woman, and she set the fox to herd her flock.

The first day the fox was herdsman he ate up all the woman's goats; the next day he made an end of all her sheep; and the third day he ate up all her cows. So, when he came home at even, the woman asked what he had done with all her flocks.

"Oh!" said the fox, "their skulls are in the stream, and their bodies in the holt."

Now, the Goody stood and churned when the fox said this, but she thought she might as well step out and see after her flock. While she was away the fox crept into the churn and ate up the cream. When Goody came back and saw that she fell into a rage. She snatched up the little morsel of cream that was left and threw it at the fox as he ran off. He got a dab of it on the end of his tail, and that's the reason why the fox has a white tip to his brush.

— Norse Folk Tale