Fourth Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Sea Fever

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by;
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,
And a gray mist on the sea's face, and a gray dawn breaking.

I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying, 
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gipsy life, 
To the gull's way and the whale's way where the wind's like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover, 
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Week 24	Dire Prophecy of the Howling Dog from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain	How a Woman Struck a Blow for Freedom from Our Island Story by H. E. Marshall	The Metamorphosis from The Story Book of Science by Jean Henri Fabre	Royal Hostages from The Little Duke by Charlotte M. Yonge	Captain Cook's Story from The Struggle for Sea Power by M. B. Synge	The Apple of Contentment from Fairy Tales Too Good To Miss—Across the Lake by Lisa M. Ripperton	The Answer to a Mother's Prayer from Hurlbut's Story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut
	Country Life in the Middle Ages from Heroes of the Middle Ages by Eva March Tappan	Turtle Eggs for Agassiz from The Spring of the Year by Dallas Lore Sharp	Montcalm and Wolfe from Builders of Our Country: Book I by Gertrude van Duyn Southworth	The Bleacher, the Crane, and the Hawk from The Tortoise and the Geese and Other Fables of Bidpai by Maude Barrows Dutton	Loki's Punishment from The Children of Odin: A Book of Northern Myths by Padraic Colum	The New Queen from The Bee People by Margaret Warner Morley	The Ring from The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald Spring-Time from The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald
	A Chanted Calendar by Sydney Dobell		A Bird Came Down the Walk by Emily Dickinson	There's Nothing Like the Rose by Christina Georgina Rossetti	To Violets from Poems by Robert Herrick	The Frog by Hilaire Belloc	The Fairies by William Allingham

The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter

The Cat and the Fox

Once a Cat and a Fox were traveling together. As they went along, picking up provisions on the way—a stray mouse here, a fat chicken there—they began an argument to while away the time between bites. And, as usually happens when comrades argue, the talk began to get personal. "You think you are extremely clever, don't you?" said the Fox. "Do you pretend to know more than I? Why, I know a whole sackful of tricks!"

"Well," retorted the Cat, "I admit I know one trick only, but that one, let me tell you, is worth a thousand of yours!"

Just then, close by, they heard a hunter's horn and the yelping of a pack of hounds. In an instant the Cat was up a tree, hiding among the leaves.

"This is my trick," he called to the Fox. "Now let me see what yours are worth."

But the Fox had so many plans for escape he could not decide which one to try first. He dodged here and there with the hounds at his heels. He doubled on his tracks, he ran at top speed, he entered a dozen burrows,—but all in vain. The hounds caught him, and soon put an end to the boaster and all his tricks.

Common sense is always worth more than cunning.