Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet



Songs for July




Elf and Dormouse

Under a toadstool

Crept a wee Elf,

Out of the rain

To shelter himself.


Under the toadstool,

Sound asleep,

Sat a big Dormouse

All in a heap.


Trembled the wee Elf

Frightened, and yet

Fearing to fly away

Lest he get wet.


To the next shelter

Maybe a mile

Sudden the wee Elf

Smiled a wee smile.


Tugged till the toadstool

Toppled in two

Holding it over him

Gayly he flew.


Soon he was safe home,

Dry as could be.

Soon woke the Dormouse

"Good gracious me!


Where is my toadstool!"

Loud he lamented,

And that's how umbrellas

First were invented.


  Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Week 1 Master Cherry Finds a Piece of Wood from Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi King Alfred and the Cakes from Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin The Fall of Snow from The Seasons: Winter by Jane Marcet The Coming of Crow-feather-Cloak from The Girl Who Sat by the Ashes by Padraic Colum Two Young Romans from On the Shores of the Great Sea by M. B. Synge Aunt Harriet Has a Cough (Part 1 of 3) from Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher The Story of a Scarlet Cord from Hurlbut's Story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut
The Baby from Viking Tales by Jennie Hall Chickadee Dee Dee (Part 1 of 3) from Outdoor Visits by Edith M. Patch The Wolf and the Kid from The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter I Wish To Be a Sailor from Robinson Crusoe Written Anew for Children by James Baldwin Daedalus and Icarus from A Child's Book of Myths and Enchantment Tales by Margaret Evans Price Happy Jack Squirrel Makes a Find from The Adventures of Prickly Porky by Thornton Burgess The Ship-Building Story from The Sandman: His Ship Stories by Willliam J. Hopkins
The New Year by Alfred Lord Tennyson The Duel by Eugene Field The Purple Cow by Gelett Burgess
The New Year by Dinah Mulock
Trees by Walter de la Mare Winter by Alfred Lord Tennyson Cradle Hymn by Isaac Watts
         Next row Last row
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.