Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for April

The Land of Counterpane

When I was sick and lay a-bed,
I had two pillows at my head,
And all my toys beside me lay,
To keep me happy all the day.

And sometimes for an hour or so
I watched my leaden soldiers go,
With different uniforms and drills,
Among the bed-clothes, through the hills;

And sometimes sent my ships in fleets
All up and down among the sheets;
Or brought my trees and houses out,
And planted cities all about.

I was the giant great and still
That sits upon the pillow-hill,
And sees before him, dale and plain,
The pleasant land of counterpane.

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Week 18	Pinocchio Meets the Fox and the Cat Again from Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi	George Washington and His Hatchet from Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin	Drummers and Carpenters from The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton Burgess	The Clock Strikes and Maid-alone Stays from The Girl Who Sat by the Ashes by Padraic Colum	The Dark Ages from The Discovery of New Worlds by M. B. Synge	Elizabeth Ann Fails in an Examination (Part 3 of 3) from Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher	The Idol Temple at Dan and Its Priest from Hurlbut's Story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut
	Wineland the Good (Part 2 of 2) from Viking Tales by Jennie Hall	Mr. and Mrs. Crab from Seaside and Wayside, Book One by Julia McNair Wright	The Shepherd Boy and the Wolf from The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter	I Explore My Island from Robinson Crusoe Written Anew for Children by James Baldwin	Little White Rabbit from Nursery Tales from Many Lands by Eleanor L. and Ada M. Skinner	A Friend in Need Is a Friend Indeed from The Adventures of Prickly Porky by Thornton Burgess	The Second Night from The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner
	A Bird's Experience, Anonymous	Ariel's Song from The Tempest by William Shakespeare		The Fairies Have Never a Penny to Spend by Rose Fyleman	Off the Ground by Walter de la Mare	Over Hill, Over Dale by William Shakespeare	There Was a Cherry-Tree by James Whitcomb Riley

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.

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.