First Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for April

If All the World Were Paper



The Little Cock Sparrow



Ye Song of Sixpence



My Lady's Garden

The Horseman

I heard a horseman

Ride over the hill;

The moon shone clear,

The night was still;

His helm was silver,

And pale was he;

And the horse he rode

Was of ivory.

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Week 43 The Magic Art of the Great Humbug from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
How the Balloon Was Launched from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum 		Longfellow as a Boy from Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans by Edward Eggleston Birds' Eggs from Seed-Babies by Margaret Warner Morley Lord Peter from Fairy Tales Too Good To Miss—Up the Stairs by Lisa M. Ripperton A Great Conflict from On the Shores of the Great Sea by M. B. Synge Judas Iscariot Day (Part 1 of 2) from The Mexican Twins by Lucy Fitch Perkins What a Wise Man Learned from an Ass (Part 2 of 2) from Hurlbut's Story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut
Bimble, Bamble, Bumble, Anonymous 		If I Were King by A. A. Milne
The Peddler's Caravan by William Brighty Rands 		North-west Passage by Robert Louis Stevenson Milking Time by Christina Georgina Rossetti The Elephant by Hilaire Belloc The Dog Lies in His Kennel by Christina Georgina Rossetti
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The Aesop for Children  by Milo Winter

The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse

A Town Mouse once visited a relative who lived in the country. For lunch the Country Mouse served wheat stalks, roots, and acorns, with a dash of cold water for drink. The Town Mouse ate very sparingly, nibbling a little of this and a little of that, and by her manner making it very plain that she ate the simple food only to be polite.


[Illustration]

After the meal the friends had a long talk, or rather the Town Mouse talked about her life in the city while the Country Mouse listened. They then went to bed in a cozy nest in the hedgerow and slept in quiet and comfort until morning. In her sleep the Country Mouse dreamed she was a Town Mouse with all the luxuries and delights of city life that her friend had described for her. So the next day when the Town Mouse asked the Country Mouse to go home with her to the city, she gladly said yes.

When they reached the mansion in which the Town Mouse lived, they found on the table in the dining room the leavings of a very fine banquet. There were sweetmeats and jellies, pastries, delicious cheeses, indeed, the most tempting foods that a Mouse can imagine. But just as the Country Mouse was about to nibble a dainty bit of pastry, she heard a Cat mew loudly and scratch at the door. In great fear the Mice scurried to a hiding place, where they lay quite still for a long time, hardly daring to breathe. When at last they ventured back to the feast, the door opened suddenly and in came the servants to clear the table, followed by the House Dog.


[Illustration]

The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse

The Country Mouse stopped in the Town Mouse's den only long enough to pick up her carpet bag and umbrella.

"You may have luxuries and dainties that I have not," she said as she hurried away, "but I prefer my plain food and simple life in the country with the peace and security that go with it."

Poverty with security is better than plenty in the midst of fear and uncertainty.