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 43 Huck Saves the Widow from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain George III—The Story of How America Was Lost from Our Island Story by H. E. Marshall The Experiment with the Bottle of Cold Water from The Story Book of Science by Jean Henri Fabre Dinner from Our Little Frankish Cousin of Long Ago by Evaleen Stein At the Cape of Good Hope from The Struggle for Sea Power by M. B. Synge Where To Lay the Blame from Fairy Tales Too Good To Miss—Across the Lake by Lisa M. Ripperton The Crown of Thorns (Part 1 of 2) from Hurlbut's Story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut
The New Road from God's Troubadour, The Story of St. Francis of Assisi by Sophie Jewett
"The Other Life Is as My Life" from God's Troubadour, The Story of St. Francis of Assisi by Sophie Jewett 		Whipped by Eagles from The Fall of the Year by Dallas Lore Sharp The Lawyer from Four American Patriots by Alma Holman Burton The Two Travelers from The Tortoise and the Geese and Other Fables of Bidpai by Maude Barrows Dutton The Escape of William Tell from Stories of William Tell Told to the Children by H. E. Marshall Wasp Flowers from Will o' the Wasps by Margaret Warner Morley How Betsinda Got the Warming-Pan from The Rose and the Ring by William Makepeace Thackeray
How King Valoroso Was in a Dreadful Passion from The Rose and the Ring by William Makepeace Thackeray
  Jack Frost by Hannah Flagg Gould Lady Clare by Alfred Lord Tennyson Song from "The Culprit Fay" by Joseph Rodman Drake   The Duck and the Kangaroo by Edward Lear To a Mouse by Robert Burns
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The Aesop for Children  by Milo Winter

The Lark and Her Young Ones

A Lark made her nest in a field of young wheat. As the days passed, the wheat stalks grew tall and the young birds, too, grew in strength. Then one day, when the ripe golden grain waved in the breeze, the Farmer and his son came into the field.

"This wheat is now ready for reaping," said the Farmer. "We must call in our neighbors and friends to help us harvest it."

The young Larks in their nest close by were much frightened, for they knew they would be in great danger if they did not leave the nest before the reapers came. When the Mother Lark returned with food for them, they told her what they had heard.


[Illustration]

"Do not be frightened, children," said the Mother Lark. "If the Farmer said he would call in his neighbors and friends to help him do his work, this wheat will not be reaped for a while yet."

A few days later, the wheat was so ripe, that when the wind shook the stalks, a hail of wheat grains came rustling down on the young Larks' heads.

"If this wheat is not harvested at once," said the Farmer, "we shall lose half the crop. We cannot wait any longer for help from our friends. Tomorrow we must set to work, ourselves."

When the young Larks told their mother what they had heard that day, she said:

"Then we must be off at once. When a man decides to do his own work and not depend on any one else, then you may be sure there will be no more delay." There was much fluttering and trying out of wings that afternoon, and at sunrise next day, when the Farmer and his son cut down the grain, they found an empty nest.

Self-help is the best help.