Third Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for December


Some One

Some one came knocking

At my wee, small door;

Some one came knocking,

I'm sure—sure—sure;

I listened, I opened,

I looked to left and right,

But naught there was a-stirring

In the still dark night;

Only the busy beetle

Tap-tapping in the wall,

Only from the forest

The screech-owl's call,

Only the cricket whistling

While the dewdrops fall,

So I know not who came knocking,

At all, at all, at all.

  Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Week 42 Preparations for a Journey from Heidi by Johanna Spyri Edward I—The Hammer of the Scots from Our Island Story by H. E. Marshall The Ol' Beech Pa'tridge (Part 2 of 2) from Secrets of the Woods by William J. Long Robin Hood and the Silver Arrow from Stories of Robin Hood Told to the Children by H. E. Marshall Van Riebeek's Colony from The Awakening of Europe by M. B. Synge Murdoch's Rath from Fairy Tales Too Good To Miss—Aboard the Ship by Lisa M. Ripperton Saint Ursula (Part 1 of 2) from In God's Garden by Amy Steedman
Why He Carried the Turkey from Fifty Famous People by James Baldwin A Tuft of Evening Primroses from Holiday Hill by Edith M. Patch Daniel Webster (Part 2 of 5) from Four Great Americans by James Baldwin Three Bullocks and a Lion from The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter The Tunic of Nessus from Gods and Heroes by Robert Edward Francillon Mr. Worm's Cottage by the Sea from Seaside and Wayside, Book Two by Julia McNair Wright The Further Adventures of Toad (Part 3 of 3) from The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
The Cavalier's Escape by Walter Thornbury Eternity by William Blake ---OCTOBER--- The Sands of Dee by Charles Kingsley Poem by Rachel Field Auld Daddy Darkness by James Ferguson Robin Redbreast by William Allingham
First row Previous row          Next row Last row
READING-LITERATURE: Third Reader  by Harriette Taylor Treadwell

The Fox as Herdsman

Once on a time there was a woman who went out to hire a herdsman, and she met a bear.

"Whither away, Goody?" said Bruin.

"Oh, I'm going out to hire a herdsman," answered the woman.

"Why not have me for a herdsman?" said Bruin.

"Well, why not," said the woman, "if you only know how to call the flock? Just let me hear you call."

"Ow, Ow!" growled the bear.

"No, no! I won't have you," said the woman as soon as she heard him say that, and off she went on her way.

When she had gone a bit farther she met a wolf.

"Whither away, Goody?" said the wolf.

"Oh," said she, "I'm going out to hire a herdsman."

"Why not have me for a herdsman?" said the wolf.

"Well, why not, if you can only call the flock? Let me hear you call," said she.

"Uh, Uh!" said the wolf.

"No, no!" said the woman, "you'll never do for me."

Well, after she had gone a while longer she met a fox.

"Whither away, Goody?" asked the fox.

"Oh, I'm just going out to hire a herdsman," said the woman.

"Why not have me for a herdsman?" asked the fox.

"Well, why not," said she, "if you only know how to call the flock? Let me hear you call."

"Dil-dal-holom!" sang out the fox in a fine clear voice.

"Yes, I'll have you for my herdsman," said the woman, and she set the fox to herd her flock.

The first day the fox was herdsman he ate up all the woman's goats; the next day he made an end of all her sheep; and the third day he ate up all her cows. So, when he came home at even, the woman asked what he had done with all her flocks.

"Oh!" said the fox, "their skulls are in the stream, and their bodies in the holt."

Now, the Goody stood and churned when the fox said this, but she thought she might as well step out and see after her flock. While she was away the fox crept into the churn and ate up the cream. When Goody came back and saw that she fell into a rage. She snatched up the little morsel of cream that was left and threw it at the fox as he ran off. He got a dab of it on the end of his tail, and that's the reason why the fox has a white tip to his brush.

— Norse Folk Tale