Illustrations

by George McGinn ©

Foreword by Professor George McGinn

Remarkably, the story of "The Gingerbread Boy" in the 1875 May edition of the St Nicholas magazine includes illustrations of all the story's characters with one exception - the gingerbread boy himself is nowhere to be seen. Depictions of the gingerbread boy and background illustrations have been added courtesy of George McGinn ©.

Posted in the Letter-Box, St Nicholas, May 1875 (page 452)

The author of the "Gingerbread Boy," in our pages for Little Folks, writes as follows:

"The 'Gingerbread Boy' is not strictly original. A servant 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. So it may possibly have been in print, though I have never seen it."

Now you shall hear a story that somebody's great-great-grand-mother told a little girl ever so many years ago:

There was once a little old man and a little old woman, who lived in a little old house in the edge of a wood. They would have been a very happy old couple but for one thing. They had no little child, and they wished for one very much. One day when the little old woman was baking gingerbread, she cut a cake in the shape of a little boy, and put it into the oven.

Presently, she went to the oven to see if it was baked. As soon as the oven door was opened, the little gingerbread boy jumped out, and began to run away as fast as he could go.

The little old woman called her husband, and they both ran after him. But they could not catch him. And soon the gingerbread boy came to a barn full of threshers. He called out to them as he went by, saying:

But, though the cow started at once, she couldn't catch him. And soon he came to a pig. He called out to the pig:

 

~The End~

Illustrations by unknown.

Story rooted in fairy tale.

 

 

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2.Sing A Song of Sixpence

 

Illustration from

Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book

 

Foreword by Professor George McGinn

Like many nursery rhymes, the origins of Sing A Song of Sixpence are vague, but the first known printed version appears in Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book (Vol II, London, 1744) with an illustration by 'Nurse Lovechild' whose identity is unknown. As shown under reference A, there is only one verse which is not the one most people are familiar with today. The later more commonly known version is shown under reference B.

 

Reference A

 

Sing a Song of Sixpence,

A bag full of Rye,

Four and twenty

Naughty boys,

Bak'd in a Pye.

 

 

 

Reference B

 

Sing a Song of Sixpence,

A pocket full of Rye,

Four and twenty

Black birds,

Baked in a pie.

 

When the pie was opened,

the birds began to sing.

Wasn't that a dainty dish

To set before the king?

 

The king was in his counting-house

Counting out his money.

The queen was in the parlour

Eating bread and honey.

 

The maid was in the garden

Hanging out the clothes.

Along came a blackbird

And snipped off her nose.

 

 

~The End~

Story from Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book

with Illustration by 'Nurse Lovechild'

 

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