Fourth Grade Read Aloud Banquet

From a Railway Carriage

Faster than fairies, faster than witches,

Bridges and houses, hedges and ditches;

And charging along like troops in a battle

All through the meadows the horses and cattle:

All of the sights of the hill and the plain

Fly as thick as driving rain;

And ever again, in the wink of an eye,

Painted stations whistle by.


Here is a child who clambers and scrambles,

All by himself and gathering brambles;

Here is a tramp who stands and gazes;

And there is the green for stringing the daisies!

Here is a cart run away in the road

Lumping along with man and load;

And here is a mill and there is a river:

Each a glimpse and gone for ever!

  Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Week 52 Seasonal Story Victoria—War from Our Island Story by H. E. Marshall Seasonal Story Seasonal Story Napoleon's Retreat from Moscow from The Struggle for Sea Power by M. B. Synge The Little Match-Girl from Fairy Tales Too Good To Miss—Across the Lake by Lisa M. Ripperton Seasonal Story
Seasonal Story Seasonal Story Seasonal Story Seasonal Story Seasonal Story Seasonal Story And Now We Come to the Last Scene in the Pantomime from The Rose and the Ring by William Makepeace Thackeray
Summary from The Rose and the Ring by William Makepeace Thackeray
  Seasonal Poem The Death of the Old Year by Alfred Lord Tennyson Seasonal Poem Seasonal Poem Seasonal Poem An Old Christmas Carol, Anonymous
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The Aesop for Children  by Milo Winter

The Wolf and the House Dog

There was once a Wolf who got very little to eat because the Dogs of the village were so wide awake and watchful. He was really nothing but skin and bones, and it made him very downhearted to think of it.

One night this Wolf happened to fall in with a fine fat House Dog who had wandered a little too far from home. The Wolf would gladly have eaten him then and there, but the House Dog looked strong enough to leave his marks should he try it. So the Wolf spoke very humbly to the Dog, complimenting him on his fine appearance.


[Illustration]

"You can be as well-fed as I am if you want to," replied the Dog. "Leave the woods; there you live miserably. Why, you have to fight hard for every bite you get. Follow my example and you will get along beautifully."

"What must I do?" asked the Wolf.

"Hardly anything," answered the House Dog. "Chase people who carry canes, bark at beggars, and fawn on the people of the house. In return you will get tidbits of every kind, chicken bones, choice bits of meat, sugar, cake, and much more beside, not to speak of kind words and caresses.

The Wolf had such a beautiful vision of his coming happiness that he almost wept. But just then he noticed that the hair on the Dog's neck was worn and the skin was chafed.

"What is that on your neck?" "Nothing at all," replied the Dog.

"What! nothing!"

"Oh, just a trifle!"

"But please tell me."

"Perhaps you see the mark of the collar to which my chain is fastened."

"What! A chain!" cried the Wolf. "Don't you go wherever you please?"

"Not always! But what's the difference?" replied the Dog.

"All the difference in the world! I don't care a rap for your feasts and I wouldn't take all the tender young lambs in the world at that price." And away ran the Wolf to the woods.

There is nothing worth so much as liberty.