{"collection":"folklore-oral-tradition","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_25877/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_25877","id":"gutenberg_25877","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25877","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Adventure","Category: Children & Young Adult Reading","Category: Humour","Escapes -- Juvenile fiction","Fairy tales","Gingerbread men -- Juvenile fiction"],"text":"Produced by David Edwards, Suzan Flanagan, and the Online\nDistributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This\nfile was produced from images generously made available\nby The Internet Archive)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\n     The Little\n     Gingerbread\n     Man\n\n     [Illustration]\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n[Illustration]\n\n[Illustration: Cook makes the Gingerbread Man]\n\n\n\n\n     The Little\n     Gingerbread\n     Man\n\n     by G.H.P.\n\n     [Illustration]\n\n\n     PICTURES & DECORATIONS by\n     Robert Gaston Herbert\n\n\n     G. P. Putnam's Sons\n     New York and London\n     The Knickerbocker Press\n\n\n\n\n     [Illustration]\n\n     COPYRIGHT, 1910\n\n     BY\n\n     G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS\n\n\n     First Printing, October, 1910\n     Second    \"     September, 1912\n     Third     \"     July, 1915\n     Fourth    \"     April, 1921\n     Fifth     \"     July, 1923\n     Sixth     \"     April, 1927\n\n     [Illustration: The Knickerbocker Press New York]\n\n     Made in the United States of America\n\n\n\n\nThe Little Gingerbread Man\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: The Little Gingerbread Man]\n\n\nOne day, the cook went into the kitchen to make some gingerbread.\nShe took some flour and water, and treacle and ginger, and mixed\nthem all well together, and she put in some more water to make it\nthin, and then some more flour to make it thick, and a little salt\nand some spice, and then she rolled it out into a beautiful,\nsmooth, dark-yellow dough.\n\nThen she took the square tins and cut out some square cakes for the\nlittle boys, and with some round tins she cut out some round cakes\nfor the little girls, and then she said, \"I'm going to make a\nlittle gingerbread man for little Bobby.\" So she took a nice round\nlump of dough for his body, and a smaller lump for his head, which\nshe pulled out a little for the neck. Two other lumps were stuck on\nbeneath for the legs, and were pulled out into proper shape, with\nfeet and toes all complete, and two still smaller pieces were made\ninto arms, with dear little hands and fingers.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nBut the nicest work was done on the head, for the top was frizzed\nup into a pretty sugary hat; on either side was made a dear little\near, and in front, after the nose had been carefully moulded, a\nbeautiful mouth was made out of a big raisin, and two bright little\neyes with burnt almonds and caraway seeds.\n\nThen the gingerbread man was finished ready for baking, and a very\njolly little man he was. In fact, he looked so sly that the cook\nwas afraid he was plotting some mischief, and when the batter was\nready for the oven, she put in the square cakes and she put in the\nround cakes; and then she put in the little gingerbread man in a\nfar back corner, where he couldn't get away in a hurry.\n\n[Illustration: Cook goes up to sweep the Parlor]\n\n[Illustration]\n\nThen she went up to sweep the parlor, and she swept and she swept\ntill the clock struck twelve, when she dropped her broom in a\nhurry, and exclaiming, \"Lawks! the gingerbread will be all baked to\na cinder,\" she ran down into the kitchen, and threw open the oven\ndoor. And the square cakes were all done, nice and hard and brown,\nand the round cakes were all done, nice and hard and brown, and the\ngingerbread man was all done too, nice and hard and brown; and he\nwas standing up in his corner, with his little caraway-seed eyes\nsparkling, and his raisin mouth bubbling over with mischief, while\nhe waited for the oven door to be opened. The instant the door was\nopened, with a hop, skip, and a jump, he went right over the square\ncakes and the round cakes, and over the cook's arm, and before she\ncould say \"Jack Robinson\" he was running across the kitchen floor,\nas fast as his little legs would carry him, towards the back door,\nwhich was standing wide open, and through which he could see the\ngarden path.\n\n[Illustration: The Gingerbread Man Escapes.]\n\nThe old cook turned round as fast as she could, which wasn't very\nfast, for she was rather a heavy woman and she had been quite taken\nby surprise, and she saw lying right across the door-way, fast\nasleep in the sun, old Mouser, the cat.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\"Mouser, Mouser,\" she cried, \"stop the gingerbread man! I want him\nfor little Bobby.\" When the cook first called, Mouser thought it\nwas only some one calling in her dreams, and simply rolled over\nlazily; and the cook called again, \"Mouser, Mouser!\" The old cat\nsprang up with a jump, but just as she turned round to ask the cook\nwhat all the noise was about, the little gingerbread man cleverly\njumped under her tail, and in an instant was trotting down the\ngarden walk. Mouser turned in a hurry and ran after, although she\nwas still rather too sleepy to know what it was she was trying to\ncatch, and after the cat came the cook, lumbering along rather\nheavily, but also making pretty good speed.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nNow at the bottom of the walk, lying fast asleep in the sun against\nthe warm stones of the garden wall, was Towser, the dog.\n\nAnd the cook called out: \"Towser, Towser, stop the gingerbread man!\nI want him for little Bobby.\"\n\nAnd when Towser first heard her calling he thought it was some one\nspeaking in his dreams, and he only turned over on his side, with\nanother snore, and then the cook called again, \"Towser, Towser,\nstop him, stop him!\"\n\nThen the dog woke up in good earnest, and jumped up on his feet to\nsee what it was that he should stop. But just as the dog jumped up,\nthe little gingerbread man, who had been watching for the chance,\nquietly slipped between his legs, and climbed up on the top of the\nstone wall, so that Towser saw nothing but the cat running towards\nhim down the walk, and behind the cat the cook, now quite out of\nbreath.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nHe thought at once that the cat must have stolen something, and\nthat it was the cat the cook wanted him to stop. Now, if there was\nanything that Towser liked, it was going after the cat, and he\njumped up the walk so fiercely that the poor cat did not have time\nto stop herself or to get out of his way, and they came together\nwith a great fizzing, and barking, and meowing, and howling, and\nscratching, and biting, as if a couple of Catherine-wheels had gone\noff in the wrong way and had got mixed up with one another.\n\n[Illustration: Cook takes a tumble]\n\nBut the old cook had been running so hard that she was not able to\nstop herself any better than the cat had done, and she fell right\non top of the mixed up dog and cat, so that all three rolled over\non the walk in a heap together.\n\nAnd the cat scratched whichever came nearest, whether it was a\npiece of the dog or of the cook, and the dog bit at whatever came\nnearest, whether it was a piece of the cat or of the cook, so that\nthe poor cook was badly pummelled on both sides.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nMeanwhile, the gingerbread man had climbed up on the garden wall,\nand stood on the top with his hands in his pockets, looking at the\nscrimmage, and laughing till the tears ran down from his little\ncaraway-seed eyes and his raisin mouth was bubbling all over with\nfun.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nAfter a little while, the cat managed to pull herself out\nfrom under the cook and the dog, and a very cast-down and\ncrumpled-up-looking cat she was. She had had enough of hunting\ngingerbread men, and she crept back to the kitchen to repair\ndamages.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nThe dog, who was very cross because his face had been badly\nscratched, let go of the cook, and at last, catching sight of the\ngingerbread man, made a bolt for the garden wall. The cook picked\nherself up, and although her face was also badly scratched and her\ndress was torn, she was determined to see the end of the chase, and\nshe followed after the dog, though this time more slowly.\n\n[Illustration: The Monkey catches the Gingerbread Man]\n\nWhen the gingerbread man saw the dog coming, he jumped down on the\nfarther side of the wall, and began running across the field. Now\nin the middle of the field was a tree, and at the foot of the tree\nwas lying Jocko, the monkey. He wasn't asleep--monkeys never\nare--and when he saw the little man running across the field and\nheard the cook calling, \"Jocko, Jocko, stop the gingerbread man,\"\nhe at once gave one big jump. But he jumped so fast and so far that\nhe went right over the gingerbread man, and as luck would have it,\nhe came down on the back of Towser, the dog, who had just scrambled\nover the wall, and whom he had not before noticed. Towser was\nnaturally taken by surprise, but he turned his head around and\npromptly bit off the end of the monkey's tail, and Jocko quickly\njumped off again, chattering his indignation.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nMeanwhile, the gingerbread man had got to the bottom of the tree,\nand was saying to himself: \"Now, I know the dog can't climb a tree,\nand I don't believe the old cook can climb a tree; and as for the\nmonkey I'm not sure, for I've never seen a monkey before, but I am\ngoing up.\"\n\nSo he pulled himself up hand over hand until he had got to the\ntopmost branch.\n\nBut the monkey had jumped with one spring onto the lowest branch,\nand in an instant he also was at the top of the tree.\n\nThe gingerbread man crawled out to the furthermost end of the\nbranch, and hung by one hand, but the monkey swung himself under\nthe branch, and stretching out his long arm, he pulled the\ngingerbread man in. Then he held him up and looked at him so\nhungrily that the little raisin mouth began to pucker down at the\ncorners, and the caraway-seed eyes filled with tears.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nAnd then what do you think happened? Why, little Bobby himself came\nrunning up. He had been taking his noon-day nap upstairs, and in\nhis dreams it seemed as if he kept hearing people call \"Little\nBobby, little Bobby!\" until finally he jumped up with a start, and\nwas so sure that some one was calling him that he ran down-stairs,\nwithout even waiting to put on his shoes.\n\n[Illustration: Bobby thought he heard someone calling.]\n\nAs he came down, he could see through the window in the field\nbeyond the garden the cook, and the dog, and the monkey, and could\neven hear the barking of Towser and the chattering of Jocko. He\nscampered down the walk, with his little bare feet pattering\nagainst the warm gravel, climbed over the wall, and in a few\nseconds arrived under the tree, just as Jocko was holding up the\npoor little gingerbread man.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\"Drop it, Jocko!\" cried Bobby, and drop it Jocko did, for he always\nhad to mind Bobby. He dropped it so straight that the gingerbread\nman fell right into Bobby's uplifted pinafore.\n\nThen Bobby held him up and looked at him, and the little raisin\nmouth puckered down lower than ever, and the tears ran right out of\nthe caraway-seed eyes.\n\nBut Bobby was too hungry to mind gingerbread tears, and he gave one\nbig bite, and swallowed down both legs and a piece of the body.\n\n[Illustration: \"1/3 gone\"]\n\n\"OH!\" said the gingerbread man, \"I'M ONE-THIRD GONE!\"\n\nBobby gave a second bite, and swallowed the rest of the body and\nthe arms.\n\n[Illustration: \"2/3 gone\"]\n\n\"OH!\" said the gingerbread man, \"I'M TWO-THIRDS GONE!\"\n\nBobby gave a third bite, and gulped down the head.\n\n\"_Oh!_\" said the gingerbread man, \"_I'm all gone!_\"\n\nAnd so he was--and that is the end of the story.\n\n[Illustration: The end of the story]\n\n[Illustration]\n\n[Illustration]\n\n[Illustration]","title":"The Little Gingerbread Man","tradition":"folklore-oral-tradition","translated_text":null,"word_count":2002}