The Gingerbread Man (also known as The Gingerbread Boy) is a folktale about a gingerbread man's escape from various pursuers and his eventual demise between the jaws of a fox. "The Gingerbread Boy "first appeared in print in the May, 1875, issue of St. Nicholas Magazine in a cumulative tale which, like "The Little Red Hen", depends on repetitious scenes featuring an ever-growing cast of characters for its effect.[1] According to the reteller of the tale, "A girl from Maine told it to my children. It interested them so much that I thought it worth preserving. I asked where she found it and she said an old lady told it to her in her childhood."[2]
1875 story
In the 1875 St. Nicholas tale, a childless old woman bakes a gingerbread man who leaps from her oven and runs away. The woman and her husband give chase but fail to catch him. The Gingerbread man then outruns several farm workers and farm animals while taunting them with the phrase:
I've run away from a little old woman,
A little old man,
And I can run away from you, I can!
The tale ends with a fox catching and eating the gingerbread man who cries as he's devoured, "I'm quarter gone...I'm half gone...I'm three-quarters gone...I'm all gone!"[3]
