THE LITTLE GINGERBREAD MAN

By Ruth Plumly Thompson Author of Kabumpo in Oz, "The Wizard of Pumperdink", "King, King! Double King!", etc. 

Originally published in 1923 by the Royal Baking Powder Company.


A ROYAL TIME

Once on a time there was a King
As cross as any bear,
He shook the cook and often took
A handful of his hair!
(And this was quite a shame because
He hadn't much to spare.)

But then, a wretched cook he was,
Which complicated things,
And sure as whales have fins and tails
Poor cooking makes poor Kings!

Now, this one flung folks right and left
And scolded without cause,
And, perched upon his throne, he made
A lot of dreadful laws.

And what you s'pose the last one was?
The last one, mercy sake!
Forbade his subjects to indulge
In any kind of cake.
Im--agine, and the Princess Posy's
Birthday right at hand.
A birthday and no cake;
Dismay and horror filled the land!

No Cakes in Jalapomp, No Buns--
The law said,--and No Tarts.
The Princess sighed, the Courtiers cried
Just fit to break their hearts.
"Without a cake a birthday's like
A King without a crown,"
The cook explained, and when he added
With a puzzled frown--

"Where shall we stick the candles, Sire?"
"Oh, stick them in your head!"
The old King muttered crossly
As he shuffled off to bed,
"And may a Gooch fly off with you!"
Yes, that is what he said.

But luckily, it happened that a
Little Flour Fairy heard
The whole affair and off she flew
And told it word for word
To the Queen of all the Flour Folk
Who in a castle grand
All built of wooden bowls and spoons
Rules over Cookry Land.

And there she was a-baking
Out of fragrant gingerbread
A little man who from the pan
Rose as we rise from bed,
For all the cakes that this Queen makes
Are alive in Cookry Town,
And you can see them any day
Go skipping up and down.

And as the good Queen listened
To the little Fairy's tale,
The little man of gingerbread
With resolution pale
Spoke up; said he, "Here's work for me
Allow ME to persuade
This naughty King that cake's the thing
Provided it is made
The ROYAL way. I'll start to-day,
I'll call for volunteers."
And call he did so loudly
All the cakes pricked up their ears.

"For the honor of good cakes, who'll go
To Jalapomp?" he cried.
"I will," a sugar cooky said
And hurried to his side.

Then smoking and lighthearted
Came a lovely buckwheat cake,
A doughnut rolled up jauntily
And next, for sugar sake!
A bluff and hearty muffin-eer
And after him a funny
And awful sticky little tricky
Fat old cin'min bunny.
"I'll go a-hopping," said the Bun
And winked his raisin eyes,
Then came a little chocolate cake
Of lovely shape and size.

"Right!" cried the Queen.
"You all shall go
And take this little book
And in the can, brave Gingerbread Man,
Is something for the cook."

And then the Queen of Cookry Land
Clapped both her hands. Next minute
Down swooped a chocolate aeroplane
And all the cakes jumped in it.
Then off they sped to Jalapomp
And very swiftly too,
Ten miles a minute is the least
A chocolate plane will do.

Under a pickle tree the King
Of Jalapomp sat reading,
When straight above his kingly head
The chocolate plane came speeding.

"I smell fresh cakes!" the King did cry
In a voice of wrath and thunder,
"Who's baking cakes in Jalapomp
And breaking laws, I wonder?"
He sniffed and then he sniffed again
And not with rage--but zest,
"Of all the cakes I ever smelled
Sniff! Sniff! These are the best."
No wonder! Each cake in the plane
Was fresh and smoking slightly.
"Hello!" called Johnny Gingerbread
And waved his cap politely.

The King looked up and when he saw
Cakes all alive and tempting--
He lost his anger then and there
And found himself relenting.

Now running from the left and right
Came everyone to see
The leader of the Flying Corps,
Their hero soon to be.

"Ahem!" coughed Johnny Gingerbread,
"You've made a law, I hear,
Against all cakes in Jalapomp--
We cannot come too near."

"Oh, please come down," the Princess cried,
"Please do, my little honey."
"You would not have us break the law,
It's safer here," said Bunny.

Then Cin'min Bunny wagged his ears,
"If we were on the ground
I'm very much afraid we'd have
To pass ourselves around!"

"Please do," the King begged, jumping up.
"But how about the law?
We must not trespass," said the Bun,
And the poor King dropped his jaw.

With each look he grew hungrier,
And said with much ado,
"When I forbade the use of cake
It was not meant for you.
Our cook could never make good cake,
His cakes were quite detestible,
Heavier than a keg of nails
And just as indigestible.

"If he could make such cakes as you
I'd break the law myself,
And have a dozen cooky jars
Upon the pantry shelf."

"Hurray!" cried Johnny Gingerbread,
"When all is said and spoken,
He can, and that obnoxious law
Is just as good as broken.
"Good cakes are good for everyone
But 'specially are they good
For boys and girls.
Remember this:
Good cake is also FOOD.

"Good cakes are light and tasty
And," his voice grew loud and louder,
"Good cakes like us are baked with care
And ROYAL BAKING POWDER!"

"Then give me some," the poor cook pleaded
With a frantic spring,
"And I will make a cake that's fit
To set before a king!"

"And it will be my birthday cake,"
The Princess cried in glee,
"Oh, thank you, Johnny Gingerbread,
Do please come down to me!"

But little Johnny Gingerbread
Just winked his sugar eye
And whispered to the others,
"It's time for us to fly,
For when that edict really breaks
We'll all be little angel cakes!"

But first he tossed the ROYAL BAKING
POWDER to the cook
And down beside it fell the magic
Royal Cooking Book.

That very day cook baked a cake
So flaky, sweet and light,
The King embraced and raised him
To a ROYAL COOK and Knight.

And when his friends all questioned him
The cook winked both his eyes,
"Who uses Royal Baking Powder's
Simply bound to rise."

Since then his cooking has improved
In every single way
And the King grows more contented
And sweeter every day.
In fact I think without a question
His temper came from indigestion.

Now Johnny Gingerbread goes flying
From Cookry Town each day
To take his news to other folks,
In places far away.
He flies around from town to town,
And drops his Books and Powder down,
So everyone can have good cakes,
The kind that ROYAL always makes.

Copyright © 2001 Eric Shanower and David Maxine. All rights reserved. 

THE MAGIC SPECTACLES

By Ruth Plumly Thompson
Author of The Hungry Tiger of Oz, King Kojo, etc. 

Originally published in the Philadelphia Public Ledger, January 30 - February 6, 1916


Once upon a time there was a king who was no longer young and wishing to see his only daughter suitably married and his kingdom wisely bestowed ere his death, he issued a proclamation bidding all the princes of the surrounding realms to present themselves at his court that he might choose among them a husband for his daughter. This should not surprise you, as it seemed to be quite the usual thing for ancient kings to do--at least, all the kings of whom I have read. The proclamation also stated that the prince bringing with him the gift most pleasing to the princess would certainly be chosen. As you can well imagine, this caused no end of excitement in the country round about.

The highways leading to the palace were soon crowded with princes determined to win the kingdom and the princess, whose charms were such that even without a kingdom, she would not have been wanting for a husband. Some came with their whole retinue of servants, others came unattended, some rode in gold chariots, some in silver, others who wished to appear especially gorgeous, came riding on elephants and camels. Such confusion! Such running to and fro among the palace servants to attend to all their highnesses. Such a grumbling among the royal cooks; indeed, it is a wonder the poor old queen was not driven crazy with it all. As for the princess, she grew so stiff from continually curtseying that she retired to her tower and refused to welcome another one, and so crowded did the palace become that the two princes arriving last were obliged to satisfy themselves with quarters in the stable.

The king, seeing what a commotion he had brought about his ears, hastily appointed the next morning for the presentation of gifts. "For," as he said to the queen, "with all of these gentlemen eating up my money, there will soon be none left to bestow!"

So early next morning the princes filed through the royal salon and so many there were that it was quite 5 o'clock before the last two princes wound up the procession. As for the gifts, the princess was scarce visible behind the stack, for each prince left his offering at her feet. There were dozens of ruby and diamond necklaces, shimmering brocades, a dog so tiny he could sit upon the palm of one's hand, music boxes and trained birds, an Arabian horse, rugs, chests, golden chairs, and soup tureens all jumbled together, and dear only knows what not besides. But the princess had not so much as smiled at any one of them and seemed inclined not to choose at all. The poor king was quite worn out and had tied his silk handkerchief around his head, which ached sadly from the squawking of the birds and music boxes, etc.

At 5 o'clock, as I have said before, came the last two princes and one was but indifferent to look upon, being neither very tall not yet very short and in no wise remarkable, but the other, ah! he was a prince, indeed, tall and strong with flashing black eyes. He stepped confidently up to the princess and dropping gracefully on one knee, proffered her a tiny leather case. "This, gracious lady, will enable you to know your enemies!" said the prince. Curious for the first time, the princess eagerly opened the case and was much astonished to find--what do you think? A pair of smoked spectacles. "With these MAGIC SPECTACLES you can see the evil which exists in every creature's heart and thus protect yourself from all harm!" continued the Prince.

"Ah!" muttered the old king, "would that I possessed such a treasure!" Even the princess was interested now and setting the spectacles upon her small nose turned upon her chief lady in waiting! Mercies! Away flew the pleasant companion she had known and in her place an ugly tempered scold who shook the serving maids and boxed the ears of the cook's children when no one was looking. The princess drew away from the lady in waiting, though, of course, the poor woman could not guess what she had seen. Now she turned to the next lady in waiting only to see this trusted friend slipping one of the diamond necklaces into her pocket. And so it went, no matter where she looked she found evil, fancy even in her royal father, for turning upon him suddenly, the father she knew faded away and in his place she saw a miserly old man counting off his money bags in a deep cellar that she had never know to exist. "Is it not a wonderful gift?" chuckled the prince, rubbing his hands together delightedly.

"Let me try them! Let me try them!" urged the king, and the princess quietly passed them to her father. "What a wicked world this is!" she reflected sadly. "Only yesterday everything was so different. Oh, well, it is a good thing I am to possess these magic spectacles," and she began running over in her mind all the people she would try them on. Meanwhile, a terrible commotion had arisen, for the king had no sooner put on the spectacles than he began loudly calling for the guards. Looking at his prime minister, he saw him opening the money boxes and stuffing the gold into his pockets. Every one he looked at he saw cheating him in some way or other. The magic spectacles showed what every one thought and what they were plotting and no matter what evil they had done, whether it was months and months ago, the king saw it all now! He fairly tore his hair with rage and disgust and the courtiers could not imagine what had happened.

In the very midst of the excitement, the second prince stepped up to the princess. In the general confusion he had been entirely forgotten. The king waved him angrily aside. "The princess accepts the magic spectacles!" he announced haughtily. The princess was about to nod her head "Yes," when she caught sight of a case in the second prince's hands exactly like the one that had contained the dark spectacles.

"Would your highness care to look at my gift?" asked the prince, and so pleasant was his voice and though no one would have called him handsome, there was that about him which compelled the princes to look at the gift. She snapped open the leather case and there was another pair of spectacles--only this pair was pink! "To enable you to know your friends!" said the second prince, as the princess continued to gaze in astonishment at the spectacles. The first prince grew quite indignant at this and tried to push the second prince aside, but he stood his ground firmly and just then a remarkable thing happened.

The king caught his daughter by the arm and thrusting the smoked spectacles into her hands, whispered something in her ear. Can you guess what? The princess immediately put them on and looked at the first prince. "Oh! Oh!" she cried in distress, "I can never marry him!" No wonder, dears and ducks, for through the smoked glasses the prince appeared quite differently, kicking the dogs in his stable and whipping his horse, pushing aside a lame old beggar man; in fact, showing himself as he really was, cruel and selfish.

Hardly knowing what she did, the princess turned to the second prince and looked at him through the evil spectacles. But he changed never a whit, indeed, he looked even pleasanter than before. So wrought up was the Princess that she declared upon the spot that she would marry him and no one else, and though it was declared afterward to have been unbecoming in a princess, she threw her arms about his neck.

Whereupon the prince immediately set the pink spectacles upon her nose and straightway everything changed. For the pink spectacles showed one all the hidden good in people and when once you know something good about a person it is hard to think evil of him. The waiting woman they showed taking care of her blind sister with great tenderness and patience, indeed, they showed so many good points in everybody that the princess had never suspected, that she became merry as a lark,

The first prince took his smoked glasses and departed in a temper and the second prince, whose name was as sensible as himself, being just plain John, married the princess next day amid general rejoicing. And with the magic pink spectacles to help them they found so much good in their subjects that their kingdom became the happiest place in the world. 

Copyright © 2001 Eric Shanower and David Maxine. All rights reserved.

TALE OF A TROLL

By Ruth Plumly Thompson
Author of The Royal Book of Oz, Kabumpo in Oz, etc.

Originally published in the Philadelphia Public Ledger, Oct. 14, 1917 


Speaking of trolls (what's that you say, you weren't speaking of 'em) - well, no matter, let me tell you about Grimplekin, a droll little troll who got lost in a bowl. Of batter - I had to put this in another sentence because batter would not rhyme with troll. Well, I regret to say that Grimplekin was very fond of staying out early and often neglected his work. The special work of the trolls, you know, is making the bread rise, and each little fellow has a certain number of kitchens to visit each night. Most trolls live in the north countries, so do not be surprised when I tell you that Grimplekin lived in Norway. But after all that is not so important as our story.

One night Grimplekin had lingered longer than ever over a game of dories, which, by the way, is quite like checkers, and when he finally started out to make his rounds 'twas almost time for the cocks to crow. Yawning and gaping he dragged himself sleepily along, snapping his fingers over the pans of batter the good wives had set to rise (bread will not rise without this trollish finger snapping, let me tell you), and grumbling crossly to himself over the number of them. Finally he came to the last cottage. He made short work of the pans and climbed slowly to the top of a big bowl which stood at the end of the row. Snapping his fingers over the dough he sat down on the rim of the bowl to rest and whatever do you 'spose. First his head nodded forward, then it nodded backward, then he fell asleep, then he fell into the bowl, down, down, down into the soft dough and it closed over his head. Snugly as if he were tucked in his own little bed Grimplekin slept. Indeed he had never had so warm and soft a bed. "Too much moss," he mumbled drowsily, waking up after ever so long a nap. Then he tried to sit up to throw off his moss comforter, for, of course, he supposed himself in his own bed. He could not move and every minute it was growing warmer, for, my dears and ducks, it was morning and bread and troll were merrily baking in the big brick oven.

Oh, what a fix! Exerting all his strength Grimplekin finally freed his hands. Then he reached into his pocket and got his little knife. Slish, slash, he began cutting himself free from the soft hot bread. Fortunately trolls are used to heat, but even so it was terribly stuffy. Soon he had made a little open place in the center of the loaf and pulling off a piece of the soft bread he sat down to mop his brow and try to think of a way to get out. The thought of the sharp breadknife sent a shiver of dismay down his crooked little back, despite the heat, and in a panic he began tearing his way up toward the top of the loaf.

He had gotten about half way up when something hard hit him on the head and knocked him down again. He picked himself up crossly -- there it was again. This time he grasped it firmly, only to have it give way and land him again on the floor of the loaf. It was the straw with which the good dame was testing the bread, and imagine her astonishment to have it jerked out of her hands and disappear into the loaf. "I must have dropped it," she murmured to herself in puzzled tones; then as the loaves were just a nice brown she forgot all about it in hustling them out of the oven.

Poor Grimplekin, how he was jostled and bumped around in the little hole he had made in the center of the loaf, and worst of all he lost himself. That is to say, when a sudden turn stood him on his head, he quite forgot which way was toward the top, which way toward the end of the loaf. But fortunately he had a compass and with its aid he began working toward the top crust, only to find when he had scooped his way up that it was too hard and thick for him to cut through. In rage and fright he bumped his head against that imprisoning crust and vowed never again to fall asleep over his work.

All day he pecked away with his little knife and at last fell asleep with exhaustion on the bottom of the loaf. There was, of course, no way for Grimplekin to tell that it was the next morning, for inside of a loaf of bread there is no night or day, only a queer sort of twilight. But Grimplekin did know that he was hungry and thirsty. His hunger he satisfied by nibbling a few crumbs from his prison walls, but there was nothing with which to parch his poor dry little throat, and this set him to work harder than ever.

"Funny how this loaf of bread crackles," said the housewife giving it a shake that sent Grimplekin head over heels. But just then her good husband called loudly for his breakfast, so she set the loaf down and hurried off.

But please do not think that little Grimplekin was cut in two by the sharp breadknife or that he died of thirst. No indeedy. After school that day, along came the children and tiptoeing past the room where their mother was sewing went into the kitchen. One took a glass of jelly and one picked up the very loaf the little troll was in and away they pattered to have a tea party in the doll house. Almost breathless from bumping about and quite sure that his end was near Grimplekin climbed again to the top of the loaf as soon as it was set down. But in truth his release was at hand, very much so, for at that minute the little girl anxious to begin stuck her pudgy fist right through the top of the loaf. In a flash Grimplekin seized the tiny thumb, and with a shriek the hand was withdrawn. Two springs and the little troll had disappeared leaving the children gasping, half with terror and half with delight.

Of course when they told their mother about the queer little man she exclaimed, "Nonsense!" But you and I know that grown-ups are very dense about fairy folk and that is why they never see them. And as you can well believe Grimplekin was very particular after that where he went to sleep and I am glad to report that he attended to his work before cock's crow. 

Copyright © 2001 Eric Shanower and David Maxine. All rights reserved.