The Gingerbread Man

One afternoon, an old woman wanted to bake something sweet for her husband. She made a little man out of gingerbread. She gave him two raisins for eyes, a cherry for a mouth and three sugar buttons. Then she put him in the oven.

Soon the kitchen smelled wonderful, and she opened the oven door. The little man jumped out, ran across the table and out of the door. "Come back!" cried the old woman. "Come back!" cried the old man. They ran after him, but they were too slow. The Gingerbread Man laughed and sang: "Run, run, as fast as you can! You can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man!"

He ran past a cow in a field. "Stop!" said the cow. "You smell delicious." He ran past a horse on the road. "Stop!" said the horse. "I want to eat you." But the cow and the horse couldn't catch him either, and the Gingerbread Man felt very proud. Nobody can catch me, he thought.

Then he came to a wide river, and he stopped. He couldn't swim, because gingerbread gets soft in water. A fox was sitting by the river. "Do you need to cross?" the fox asked kindly. "Jump on my tail. I can swim, and I won't eat you."

The Gingerbread Man jumped on the fox's tail, and the fox began to swim. "The water is getting deep," said the fox. "Climb up on my back." The Gingerbread Man climbed up. "It's getting deeper," said the fox. "Climb up on my nose." So the Gingerbread Man climbed up on his nose.

Near the other side of the river, the fox threw back his head and opened his mouth. Snip, snap! And that was the end of the Gingerbread Man.