Fourth Grade Read Aloud Banquet

A Bird Came Down the Walk

A bird came down the walk:
He did not know I saw;
He bit an angle-worm in halves
And ate the fellow, raw.

And then he drank a dew
From a convenient grass,
And then hopped sidewise to the wall
To let a beetle pass.

He glanced with rapid eyes
That hurried all abroad,
They looked like frightened beads, I thought;
He stirred his velvet head

Like one in danger; cautious,
I offered him a crumb,
And he unrolled his feathers
And rowed him softer home

Than oars divide the ocean,
Too silver for a seam,
Or butterflies, off banks of noon,
Leap, plashless, as they swim.

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Week 51	Seasonal Story	Victoria—Peace from Our Island Story by H. E. Marshall	Seasonal Story	Seasonal Story	The Shannon and the Chesapeake from The Struggle for Sea Power by M. B. Synge	The Worker in Sandalwood from Fairy Tales Too Good To Miss—Upon the Rock by Lisa M. Ripperton	Seasonal Story
	Seasonal Story	Honk, Honk, Honk! from The Fall of the Year by Dallas Lore Sharp	Seasonal Story	Seasonal Story	Seasonal Story	Winter Wasps from Will o' the Wasps by Margaret Warner Morley	How They All Journeyed Back to the Capital from The Rose and the Ring by William Makepeace Thackeray
		Seasonal Poem	Winter by Alfred Lord Tennyson	Seasonal Poem	Seasonal Poem	Seasonal Poem	A Christmas Carol by Christina Georgina Rossetti
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
Week 53


Week 54


Week 55


Week 56


Week 57


Week 58


Week 59


Week 60


Week 61


Week 62


Week 63


Week 64


Week 65


Week 66


Week 67


Week 68


Week 69


Week 70


Week 71


Week 72


Week 73


Week 74


Week 75


Week 76


Week 77


Week 78


Week 79


Week 80


Week 81


Week 82


Week 83


Week 84


Week 85


Week 86


Week 87


Week 88


Week 89


Week 90


Week 91


Week 92


Week 93


Week 94


Week 95


Week 96


Week 97


Week 98


Week 99


Week 100


Week 101


Week 102

The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter

The Cat and the Fox

Once a Cat and a Fox were traveling together. As they went along, picking up provisions on the way—a stray mouse here, a fat chicken there—they began an argument to while away the time between bites. And, as usually happens when comrades argue, the talk began to get personal. "You think you are extremely clever, don't you?" said the Fox. "Do you pretend to know more than I? Why, I know a whole sackful of tricks!"

"Well," retorted the Cat, "I admit I know one trick only, but that one, let me tell you, is worth a thousand of yours!"

Just then, close by, they heard a hunter's horn and the yelping of a pack of hounds. In an instant the Cat was up a tree, hiding among the leaves.

"This is my trick," he called to the Fox. "Now let me see what yours are worth."

But the Fox had so many plans for escape he could not decide which one to try first. He dodged here and there with the hounds at his heels. He doubled on his tracks, he ran at top speed, he entered a dozen burrows,—but all in vain. The hounds caught him, and soon put an end to the boaster and all his tricks.

Common sense is always worth more than cunning.