Children's book with a picnic list including tongue

Question

I'm looking for an early childhood book - something around the age range of the Frog and Toad books - 1st-2nd grade (US). I actually thought for a long time that it was in the Frog and Toad books but I can't find any evidence of it in those books. I do think that the characters in the books were animals.

This is a long list of items that were on offer at a small picnic and I clearly remember one of the items was tongue. If I remember correctly, the list was also run together as if it were a single word.

This book was part of the curriculum in the school I attended as a first or second grader and we had a picnic with all of the items from the list.

Answer 1

This sounds like Rat's picnic from "The Wind in the Willows", by Kenneth Grahame. One of the picnic items is cold tongue, and Rat runs all the items together as he is telling Mole (as if he is talking quickly).

Here's the passage from chapter one:

The Mole waggled his toes from sheer happiness, spread his chest with a sigh of full contentment, and leaned back blissfully into the soft cushions. 'WHAT a day I'm having!' he said. `Let us start at once!'

`Hold hard a minute, then!' said the Rat. He looped the painter through a ring in his landing-stage, climbed up into his hole above, and after a short interval reappeared staggering under a fat, wicker luncheon-basket.

`Shove that under your feet,' he observed to the Mole, as he passed it down into the boat. Then he untied the painter and took the sculls again.

'What's inside it?' asked the Mole, wriggling with curiosity.

'There's cold chicken inside it,' replied the Rat briefly; `coldtonguecoldhamcoldbeefpickledgherkinssaladfrenchrollscresssan dwichespottedmeatgingerbeerlemonadesodawater----'

'O stop, stop,' cried the Mole in ecstacies: `This is too much!'

'Do you really think so?' enquired the Rat seriously. `It's only what I always take on these little excursions; and the other animals are always telling me that I'm a mean beast and cut it VERY fine!'