Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for April

The Land of Story-Books

At evening when the lamp is lit,
Around the fire my parents sit;
They sit at home and talk and sing,
And do not play at anything.

Now, with my little gun, I crawl
All in the dark along the wall,
And follow round the forest track
Away behind the sofa back.

There, in the night, where none can spy,
All in my hunter's camp I lie,
And play at books that I have read
Till it is time to go to bed.

These are the hills, these are the woods,
These are my starry solitudes;
And there the river by whose brink
The roaring lions come to drink.

I see the others far away
As if in firelit camp they lay,
And I, like to an Indian scout,
Around their party prowled about.

So when my nurse comes in for me,
Home I return across the sea,
And go to bed with backward looks
At my dear land of Story-Books.

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Week 50	"Birds of a Feather Flock Together" from The Birds' Christmas Carol by Kate Douglas Wiggin	Picciola from Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin	Queer Feet and a Queerer Bill from The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton Burgess	Hans Turns Sailor from The Christmas Porringer by Evaleen Stein	Gabriel Interviews the Abbot from Gabriel and the Hour Book by Evaleen Stein	The Hour Book from Gabriel and the Hour Book by Evaleen Stein	The Count's Tax from Gabriel and the Hour Book by Evaleen Stein
	Captain Smith's Departure from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis The "Starving Time" from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis	Eggs on a Branch (Part 2 of 3) from Outdoor Visits by Edith M. Patch	Robber Hans and the Porringer from The Christmas Porringer by Evaleen Stein	The Stranger Child from Good Stories for Great Holidays by Frances Jenkins Olcott	Why Bruin Has a Stumpy Tail from The Pearl Story Book by Eleanor L. Skinner	The Tailor of Gloucester from The Tailor of Gloucester by Beatrix Potter	The Race Story from The Sandman: His Sea Stories by Willliam J. Hopkins
	Here We Come A-Whistling, Anonymous	The Christmas Child by George MacDonald	Snow Song by Frank Dempster Sherman	Cradle Hymn by Martin Luther	Silver Bells by Hamish Hendry	The Waits by Margaret Deland	A Christmas Carol by G. K. Chesterton

The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter

The Shepherd Boy and the Wolf

A Shepherd Boy tended his master's Sheep near a dark forest not far from the village. Soon he found life in the pasture very dull. All he could do to amuse himself was to talk to his dog or play on his shepherd's pipe.

One day as he sat watching the Sheep and the quiet forest, and thinking what he would do should he see a Wolf, he thought of a plan to amuse himself.

His Master had told him to call for help should a Wolf attack the flock, and the Villagers would drive it away. So now, though he had not seen anything that even looked like a Wolf, he ran toward the village shouting at the top of his voice, "Wolf! Wolf!"

As he expected, the Villagers who heard the cry dropped their work and ran in great excitement to the pasture. But when they got there they found the Boy doubled up with laughter at the trick he had played on them.

A few days later the Shepherd Boy again shouted, "Wolf! Wolf!" Again the Villagers ran to help him, only to be laughed at again. Then one evening as the sun was setting behind the forest and the shadows were creeping out over the pasture, a Wolf really did spring from the underbrush and fall upon the Sheep.

In terror the Boy ran toward the village shouting "Wolf! Wolf!" But though the Villagers heard the cry, they did not run to help him as they had before. "He cannot fool us again," they said.

The Wolf killed a great many of the Boy's sheep and then slipped away into the forest.

Liars are not believed even when they speak the truth.