Fourth Grade Read Aloud Banquet

The Wind and the Moon

Said the Wind to the Moon, "I will blow you out,
You stare
In the air
Like a ghost in a chair,
Always looking what I am about—
I hate to be watched; I'll blow you out."

The Wind blew hard, and out went the Moon.
So, deep
On a heap
Of clouds to sleep,
Down lay the Wind, and slumbered soon,
Muttering low, "I've done for that Moon."

He turned in his bed; she was there again!
On high
In the sky,
With her one ghost eye,
The Moon shone white and alive and plain.
Said the Wind, "I will blow you out again."

The Wind blew hard, and the Moon grew dim.
"With my sledge,
And my wedge,
I have knocked off her edge!
If only I blow right fierce and grim,
The creature will soon be dimmer than dim."

He blew and he blew, and she thinned to a thread.
"One puff
More's enough
To blow her to snuff!
One good puff more where the last was bred,
And glimmer, glimmer, glum will go the thread."

He blew a great blast, and the thread was gone
In the air
Nowhere
Was a moonbeam bare;
Far off and harmless the shy stars shone—
Sure and certain the Moon was gone!

The Wind he took to his revels once more;
On down,
In town,
Like a merry-mad clown,
He leaped and hallooed with whistle and roar—
"What's that?" The glimmering thread once more!

He flew in a rage—he danced and blew;
But in vain
Was the pain
Of his bursting brain;
For still the broader the Moon-scrap grew,
The broader he swelled his big cheeks and blew.

Slowly she grew—till she filled the night,
And shone
On her throne
In the sky alone,
A matchless, wonderful silvery light,
Radiant and lovely, the Queen of the Night.

Said the Wind: "What a marvel of power am I!
With my breath,
Good faith!
I blew her to death—
First blew her away right out of the sky—
Then blew her in; what strength have I!"

But the Moon she knew nothing about the affair;
For, high
In the sky,
With her one white eye,
Motionless, miles above the air,
She had never heard the great Wind blare.

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Week 27	The Pirate Crew Set Sail from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain	The Commonwealth—The Adventures of a Prince from Our Island Story by H. E. Marshall	The Spider's Web from The Story Book of Science by Jean Henri Fabre	Reconciliation at Last from The Little Duke by Charlotte M. Yonge	Marie Antoinette from The Struggle for Sea Power by M. B. Synge	The Happy Prince from Fairy Tales Too Good To Miss—Across the Lake by Lisa M. Ripperton	Saint Benedict from In God's Garden by Amy Steedman
	Richard the Lion-Hearted from Heroes of the Middle Ages by Eva March Tappan	The Summer Afield from Summer by Dallas Lore Sharp	The License To Practice Law from Four American Patriots by Alma Holman Burton	The Three Fish from The Tortoise and the Geese and Other Fables of Bidpai by Maude Barrows Dutton	The Dragon's Blood from The Children of Odin: A Book of Northern Myths by Padraic Colum	Lady Wasp of the Slender Waist from Will o' the Wasps by Margaret Warner Morley	Irene's Clue from The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald
		To a Butterfly by William Wordsworth	The Grass by Emily Dickinson	Robert of Lincoln by William Cullen Bryant	A Sudden Shower from Poems by James Whitcomb Riley	Some Names in the U. S. of A. by Peter Carlson	Jul 3

The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter

The Cat and the Old Rat

There was once a Cat who was so watchful, that a Mouse hardly dared show the tip of his whiskers for fear of being eaten alive. That Cat seemed to be everywhere at once with his claws all ready for a pounce. At last the Mice kept so closely to their dens, that the Cat saw he would have to use his wits well to catch one. So one day he climbed up on a shelf and hung from it, head downward, as if he were dead, holding himself up by clinging to some ropes with one paw.

When the Mice peeped out and saw him in that position, they thought he had been hung up there in punishment for some misdeed. Very timidly at first they stuck out their heads and sniffed about carefully. But as nothing stirred, all trooped joyfully out to celebrate the death of the Cat.

Just then the Cat let go his hold, and before the Mice recovered from their surprise, he had made an end of three or four.

Now the Mice kept more strictly at home than ever. But the Cat, who was still hungry for Mice, knew more tricks than one. Rolling himself in flour until he was covered completely, he lay down in the flour bin, with one eye open for the Mice.

Sure enough, the Mice soon began to come out. To the Cat it was almost as if he already had a plump young Mouse under his claws, when an old Rat, who had had much experience with Cats and traps, and had even lost a part of his tail to pay for it, sat up at a safe distance from a hole in the wall where he lived.

"Take care!" he cried. "That may be a heap of meal, but it looks to me very much like the Cat. Whatever it is, it is wisest to keep at a safe distance."

The wise do not let themselves be tricked a second time.