Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for July


Five Eyes

In Hans' old Mill his three black cats

Watch the bins for the thieving rats.

Whisker and claw, they crouch in the night,

Their five eyes smouldering green and bright:

Squeaks from the flour sacks, squeaks from where

The cold wind stirs on the empty stair,

Squeaking and scampering, everywhere.

Then down they pounce, now in, now out,

At whisking tail, and sniffing snout;

While lean old Hans he snores away

Till peep of light at break of day;

Then up he climbs to his creaking mill,

Out come his cats all grey with meal—

Jekkel, and Jessup, and one-eyed Jill.

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Week 35 What Pinocchio Finds in the Dog-Fish from Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi Diogenes the Wise Man from Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin Peter Sees Rosebreast and Finds Redcoat from The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton Burgess The Treasure of King Labraid Lorc (Part 1 of 2) from The Boy Who Knew What the Birds Said by Padraic Colum The Invention of Printing from The Discovery of New Worlds by M. B. Synge Lost in a Forest (Part 1 of 2) from The Bears of Blue River by Charles Major The Shepherd Boy Becomes a King from Hurlbut's Story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut
Captain Smith Gains Authority from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis
Disagreeable Measures of Discipline from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis
Signs of Rebellion from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis 		Box Turtle from Outdoor Visits by Edith M. Patch The Two Goats from The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter I Explore My Cave Further from Robinson Crusoe Written Anew for Children by James Baldwin The Hillman and the Housewife from Merry Tales by Eleanor L. Skinner Prickly Porky Makes Himself at Home from The Adventures of Unc' Billy Possum by Thornton Burgess The Fire Story from The Sandman: His Sea Stories by Willliam J. Hopkins
My Lady Wind, Anonymous What Does the Bee Do? by Christina Georgina Rossetti   The Walrus and the Carpenter by Lewis Carroll The Window by Walter de la Mare Ladybird, Ladybird! by Caroline Bowles Southey A Song by James Whitcomb Riley
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The Aesop for Children  by Milo Winter

The Fox and the Grapes

A Fox one day spied a beautiful bunch of ripe grapes hanging from a vine trained along the branches of a tree. The grapes seemed ready to burst with juice, and the Fox's mouth watered as he gazed longingly at them.


[Illustration]

The bunch hung from a high branch, and the Fox had to jump for it, The first time he jumped he missed it by a long way. So he walked off a short distance and took a running leap at it, only to fall short once more. Again and again he tried, but in vain.

Now he sat down and looked at the grapes in disgust.

"What a fool I am," he said. "Here I am wearing myself out to get a bunch of sour grapes that are not worth gaping for."

And off he walked very, very scornfully.

There are many who pretend to despise and belittle that which is beyond their reach.