The Gingerbread Man

5-7 min read
12 pages

The gingerbread man, the folk tale to read aloud. He comes out of the oven running, and everybody on the road wants to eat him.

An old woman had a little flour left, and she scraped out the bin and swept up the shelf and made enough dough for one small round man with currants for eyes.

She put him in the oven. When she opened the door to look, he was on the sill — and then he was on the path, going away fast, calling: «Run, run, as fast as you can, you can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man!»

The old man ran after him. The old woman ran after him. The cat got up off the step and ran after him too, and none of the three of them got within an arm's length.

On the road he met a hare, sitting in the grass. «Gingerbread man,» said the hare, «I am going to eat you.» «You are not,» he said. «The old woman didn't catch me, the old man didn't catch me, the cat didn't catch me, and you won't either.» And off he went.

Next he met a wolf. «Gingerbread man, I am going to eat you.» «You are not. The old woman didn't, the old man didn't, the cat didn't, the hare didn't, and you won't either.» And off he went.

Then he met a bear, who said the same thing and got the same answer, with the bear's name added to the end of the list, which was getting long and which the gingerbread man rather enjoyed reciting.

By the afternoon he had said it so many times that he had stopped listening to himself say it, and he was not really looking at whoever he was saying it to. That is how it goes with a list you are proud of: after a while you are reciting it rather than using it.

So when the fox came out of the ditch, the gingerbread man began straight away: «The old woman didn't catch me, the old man didn't, the cat, the hare, the wolf, the bear —»

«I am sure that is all true,» said the fox, «but I am old, and my ears are not what they were. Come a little closer and say it again.»

The gingerbread man came closer and said it again, louder.

«Closer still,» said the fox. «Get up on my nose, and shout it, and then I shall have heard the whole of it properly.»

So he got up on the fox's nose, and he opened his mouth to shout — and that was the end of the gingerbread man, who had outrun everything on that road except being flattered.

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Text source: Folk tale in the public domain (the Slavic Kolobok; in English the same tale is told of the gingerbread man). The text was written anew for Marytale — it is not a reprint of anyone else's version.

Where «The Gingerbread Man» comes from and who wrote it down

The Gingerbread Man

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