"Run, run, as fast as you can!
You can't catch me!
I'm the Gingerbread Man!"
You can't catch me!
I'm the Gingerbread Man!"
"Mr. Fox," he said,
"As tasty as I appear to be,
I cannot let you catch and eat me.
"As tasty as I appear to be,
I cannot let you catch and eat me.
I ran away from an old woman,
I ran away from an old man,
I ran away from a cow,
I ran away from a horse,
I ran away from a chicken,
And I can run away from you!
I can!"
I ran away from an old man,
I ran away from a cow,
I ran away from a horse,
I ran away from a chicken,
And I can run away from you!
I can!"
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And right when he stood still. Snap! went Mr. Fox's jaws right
into the Gingerbread Man until he was gone.
That's strange. I think I've heard the above version once or twice, but the story as I remember it from childhood goes basically thus:
ReplyDeleteThe Gingerbread Man ran away from a bunch of things (singing all the while, of course), until he came to a river. Mr. Fox was sitting on the banks of the river when the Gingerbread Man got there.
"Run, run, run,
As fast as you can
You can't catch me
I'm the Gingerbread Man!"
"I wouldn't dream of trying to catch you," said Mr. Fox without moving. "Of course I'd never be able to. Quite right. You're much too fast for me."
Pleased, the Gingerbread Man strutted up and down the banks for a little while. Soon, however, he heard the sound of running feet, and realized that the baker and all the other things he had run away from before were coming towards him.
In a panic, he almost tried to swim across the river, but stopped when he realized he would crumble. "What'll I do? What'll I do?" he wailed as the sound of his pursuers got ever closer.
"Come on," said Mr. Fox, "get on my back and I'll swim across."
Natrually, the Gingerbread Man was reluctant. Soon, however, the baker and the rest were almost there, so he got Mr. Fox to promise on his honor as a fox that he wouldn't eat him. To make sure, the Gingerbread man sat on Mr. Fox's tail, as far from his mouth as could be.
Mr. Fox waded into the river. The water got higher and higher, and soon it was splashing the Gingerbread Man. Fearful of crumbling, he climbed onto Mr. Fox's back. The water got higher and faster, though, and when they were half way across the Gingerbread Man had to climb onto Mr. Fox's head to keep from getting soggy.
And Mr. Fox ate him in one bite!
. . . Which, at the risk of being even more long-winded than usual, reminds me of one of my favorite fairy tales:
It's the same setup, only instead of the Gingerbread Man riding Fox across the river, it's Scorpion. Before they go into the water, Fox makes Scorpion SWEAR he won't sting him. Fox points out that if Scorpion does sting him they'll BOTH drown.
Halfway across the river, Scorpion stings Fox.
"Why did you do that?" Cries Fox, as the poison begins to weaken him. "Now we'll both die, you fool! Why?"
"Because," says Scorpion, as the water gets higher, "I'm a scorpion. It's what I do."
Interesting! It's not really one that I heard much when I was young, so no one version was any more familiar than another.
ReplyDelete