STORY

Once upon a time, there was a little old woman and her husband, Farmer Paul, who lived in a cozy house deep in the woods. They loved gingerbread so much that they built their entire home out of it—from the rooftop to the doorstep—so their house would be as sweet as their favorite treat.

One day when the woman and her husband were hungry, the woman decided to make gingerbread men cookies. She kneaded and rolled out the dough, and cut out the shapes and placed them in the oven to bake. After the cookies had cooled, she began decorating the first cookie - adding raisins for eyes, gumdrops for buttons, and just as she finished piping on the mouth, the gingerbread man jumped up and ran out of the house yelling, "Don't eat me!"

The gingerbread man ran passed the farmer at the mailbox. The farmer yelled, "Stop, I want to eat you!" The gingerbread man responded, "I've run away from a little old woman, I can run away from you, I can!..."

"Run, run as fast as you can. You can't catch, me I'm the Gingerbread Man!"

The gingerbread man ran through the yard passed farm animals who mooed, whinnied, snorted and clucked, "Stop, we want to eat you!" But the gingerbread man ran even faster chanting, "I've run away from a little old woman and a farmer, I can run away from you, I can!..."

"Run, run as fast as I can, you can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man!"

Before long, the gingerbread man reached a wide river, and realized he didn't know how to swim. A sly, hungry fox saw the gingerbread man and said, "Jump on my tail and I'll take you to the other side." The gingerbread man thought, "I'll be safe on his tail, so he jumped on and they began to cross the river." Halfway across the fox barked, "You're too heavy for my tail, jump on my back!"

Soon the fox shouted, "You're too heavy for my back, jump on my head!" So the gingerbread man jumped on the fox's head. The fox, with a twinkle in his eye, then shouted, "You're too heavy for my head, jump on my nose!" The gingerbread man, without thinking, hopped on his nose, but as soon as they reached the riverbank, the fox flipped the gingerbread man into the air, snapped his mouth shut and ate the gingerbread man. And that was the end of the gingerbread man.

The End