Fourth Grade Read Aloud Banquet

From a Railway Carriage

Faster than fairies, faster than witches,

Bridges and houses, hedges and ditches;

And charging along like troops in a battle

All through the meadows the horses and cattle:

All of the sights of the hill and the plain

Fly as thick as driving rain;

And ever again, in the wink of an eye,

Painted stations whistle by.


Here is a child who clambers and scrambles,

All by himself and gathering brambles;

Here is a tramp who stands and gazes;

And there is the green for stringing the daisies!

Here is a cart run away in the road

Lumping along with man and load;

And here is a mill and there is a river:

Each a glimpse and gone for ever!

  Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Week 50 Seasonal Story Victoria—When Bread Was Dear from Our Island Story by H. E. Marshall Seasonal Story Seasonal Story The Empire at Its Height from The Struggle for Sea Power by M. B. Synge How Little Gluck Prospered from Fairy Tales Too Good To Miss—Across the Lake by Lisa M. Ripperton Seasonal Story
Seasonal Story A Chapter of Things To Hear This Fall from The Fall of the Year by Dallas Lore Sharp Seasonal Story Seasonal Story Seasonal Story The Carpenters from Will o' the Wasps by Margaret Warner Morley How a Tremendous Battle Took Place and Who Won It from The Rose and the Ring by William Makepeace Thackeray
While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night by Nahum Tate Seasonal Poem Seasonal Poem Seasonal Poem Seasonal Poem Seasonal Poem An Ancient Christmas Carol, Anonymous
First row Previous row          Next row Last row
The Aesop for Children  by Milo Winter

The Bat and the Weasels

A Bat blundered into the nest of a Weasel, who ran up to catch and eat him. The Bat begged for his life, but the Weasel would not listen.

"You are a Mouse," he said, "and I am a sworn enemy of Mice. Every Mouse I catch, I am going to eat!"

"But I am not a Mouse!" cried the Bat. "Look at my wings. Can Mice fly? Why, I am only a Bird! Please let me go!"


[Illustration]

The Weasel had to admit that the Bat was not a Mouse, so he let him go. But a few days later, the foolish Bat went blindly into the nest of another Weasel. This Weasel happened to be a bitter enemy of Birds, and he soon had the Bat under his claws, ready to eat him.

"You are a Bird," he said, "and I am going to eat you!"

"What," cried the Bat, "I, a Bird! Why, all Birds have feathers! I am nothing but a Mouse. 'Down with all Cats,' is my  motto!"

And so the Bat escaped with his life a second time.

Set your sails with the wind.