Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for June


The Little Plant

In the heart of a seed,

Buried deep, so deep!

A dear little plant

Lay fast asleep!


"Wake!" said the sunshine,

"And creep to the light!"

"Wake!" said the voice

Of the raindrops bright.


The little plant heard

And it rose to see

What the wonderful

Outside world might be!

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Week 25 Pinocchio Promises To Be Good and Studious from Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi The Story of Regulus from Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin Some Homes in the Green Forest from The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton Burgess Bloom-of-Youth and the Witch of the Elders (Part 1 of 2) from The Boy Who Knew What the Birds Said by Padraic Colum Frederick Barbarossa from The Discovery of New Worlds by M. B. Synge Betsy Has a Birthday (Part 2 of 3) from Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher The Tall Man Who Was Chosen King from Hurlbut's Story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut
A Variety of Wild Game from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis
The Tempest from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis
The New Country Sighted from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis 		The Hermit Crab from Seaside and Wayside, Book One by Julia McNair Wright The Frogs Who Wished for a King from The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter I Become a Potter from Robinson Crusoe Written Anew for Children by James Baldwin The Travels of a Fox from Nursery Tales from Many Lands by Eleanor L. and Ada M. Skinner Reddy Fox Thinks He Sees a Ghost from The Adventures of Unc' Billy Possum by Thornton Burgess Cherry Picking from The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner
A Boy's Song by James Hogg The Cow by Robert Louis Stevenson   The Pasture by Robert Frost In Vain by Walter de la Mare Wishing by William Allingham Ariel's Song from The Tempest by William Shakespeare
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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.


[Illustration]

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.