Fourth Grade Read Aloud Banquet

The Brook

I come from haunts of coot and hern,

I make a sudden sally,

And sparkle out among the fern,

To bicker down a valley.


By thirty hills I hurry down,

Or slip between the ridges;

By twenty thorps, a little town,

And half a hundred bridges.


Till last by Philip's farm I flow

To join the brimming river;

For men may come, and men may go,

But I go on forever.


I chatter over stony ways,

In little sharps and trebles,

I bubble into eddying bays,

I babble on the pebbles.


With many a curve my banks I fret

By many a field and fallow,

And many a fairy foreland set

With willow-weed and mallow.


I chatter, chatter, as I flow

To join the brimming river,

For men may come, and men may go,

But I go on forever.


I wind about, and in and out,

With here a blossom sailing,

And here and there a lusty trout,

And here and there a grayling,


And here and there a foamy flake

Upon me, as I travel,

With many a silvery water-break

Above the golden gravel,


And draw them all along, and flow

To join the brimming river,

For men may come, and men may go,

But I go on forever.


I steal by lawns and grassy plots,

I slide by hazel covers;

I move the sweet forget-me-nots

That grow for happy lovers.


I slip, I slide, I gloom, I glance,

Among my skimming swallows;

I make the netted sunbeam dance

Against my sandy shallows.


I murmur under moon and stars

In brambly wildernesses;

I linger by my shingly bars,

I loiter round my cresses;


And out again I curve and flow

To join the brimming river;

For men may come, and men may go,

But I go on forever.

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Week 27 The Pirate Crew Set Sail from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain The Commonwealth—The Adventures of a Prince from Our Island Story by H. E. Marshall The Spider's Web from The Story Book of Science by Jean Henri Fabre Reconciliation at Last from The Little Duke by Charlotte M. Yonge Marie Antoinette from The Struggle for Sea Power by M. B. Synge The Happy Prince from Fairy Tales Too Good To Miss—Across the Lake by Lisa M. Ripperton Saint Benedict from In God's Garden by Amy Steedman
Richard the Lion-Hearted from Heroes of the Middle Ages by Eva March Tappan The Summer Afield from Summer by Dallas Lore Sharp The License To Practice Law from Four American Patriots by Alma Holman Burton The Three Fish from The Tortoise and the Geese and Other Fables of Bidpai by Maude Barrows Dutton The Dragon's Blood from The Children of Odin: A Book of Northern Myths by Padraic Colum Lady Wasp of the Slender Waist from Will o' the Wasps by Margaret Warner Morley Irene's Clue from The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald
  To a Butterfly by William Wordsworth The Grass by Emily Dickinson Robert of Lincoln by William Cullen Bryant A Sudden Shower from Poems by James Whitcomb Riley Some Names in the U. S. of A. by Peter Carlson Jul 3
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The Aesop for Children  by Milo Winter

The Bees and Wasps, and the Hornet

A store of honey had been found in a hollow tree, and the Wasps declared positively that it belonged to them. The Bees were just as sure that the treasure was theirs. The argument grew very pointed, and it looked as if the affair could not be settled without a battle, when at last, with much good sense, they agreed to let a judge decide the matter. So they brought the case before the Hornet, justice of the peace in that part of the woods.


[Illustration]

When the judge called the case, witnesses declared that they had seen certain winged creatures in the neighborhood of the hollow tree, who hummed loudly, and whose bodies were striped, yellow and black, like Bees.

Counsel for the Wasps immediately insisted that this description fitted his clients exactly.

Such evidence did not help Judge Hornet to any decision, so he adjourned court for six weeks to give him time to think it over. When the case came up again, both sides had a large number of witnesses. An Ant was first to take the stand, and was about to be cross-examined, when a wise old Bee addressed the Court.

"Your honor," he said, "the case has now been pending for six weeks. If it is not decided soon, the honey will not be fit for anything. I move that the Bees and the Wasps be both instructed to build a honey comb. Then we shall soon see to whom the honey really belongs."

The Wasps protested loudly. Wise Judge Hornet quickly understood why they did so: They knew they could not build a honey comb and fill it with honey.

"It is clear," said the judge, "who made the comb and who could not have made it. The honey belongs to the Bees."

Ability proves itself by deeds.