Clever Maria

A merchant had three daughters, and the youngest, Maria, was the most beautiful. The
king gave each daughter a pot of basil and forbade them to receive visitors. One day, the
king came with two friends. Maria said she and her sisters would get wine from the
cellar. The king said they were not thirsty. The sisters said they would not go. Maria said
she would go just the same. Then she ran to a neighbor's and stayed there the night. The
king was angry, but her basil did not wither, as her sisters' did.

The daughters looked over at the king's garden, and the oldest daughter asked Maria to
climb down a rope and steal some fruit for her. A gardener caught her, but she escaped.
The next day, the second daughter asked her to steal a fruit basket for her, but this time
the king caught her. He questioned her, she denied nothing, and he told her to follow him
to the house. Though he turned to make sure she followed him, she managed to escape.
He fell ill.

Meanwhile, her two sisters had married the king's friends and had babies. Maria took the
babies to show the king.Maria went about, calling for someone to give the babies to the
king, who was sick of love. The king bought it and was infuriated that he held the babies.
He knew the merchant had returned and ordered him to bring him a coat of stone or lose
his head. Maria told him to take the fabric to the castle and demanded to measure the
king. The king changed his order: he had to bring not the coat but his daughter Maria.
Maria told her father to make her a doll of herself, with strings so she could make it nod
and shake its head. Maria went to the castle and hid behind the doll. When the king
recounted her misdeeds, she made the doll nod. Because she was mocking him, he cut off
the doll's head. Its head fell toward him, and he said that the man who killed her deserved
to die and turned the sword on himself. Maria jumped out to stop him. They married and
lived happily.
The Gingerbread Man

In the story, an elderly couple live in a little house. The wife one day decides to bake a
biscuit. She takes the gingerbread dough and turns it into the shape of a man and bakes it.
She then decorates it to give him eyes, shirt buttons, a mouth and other accessories.

When the gingerbread man is cooked, the couple go to eat him. He comes to life and runs
away, yelling "Don't eat me." The couple try to stop him but he jumps out the window
yelling "Run, run, run as fast you can! You can't catch me, I'm The Gingerbread Man!"
They chase after him.

He runs into the woods where he meets a pig, who wants to eat him. The Gingerbread
Man runs from the pig yelling "Run, run, run as fast you can! You can't catch me, I'm
The Gingerbread Man!"

He is chased by the pig until he runs into a cow, who also wants to eat him. He once
again yells his catchphrase and keeps running. He meets a horse, who also wants to eat
him. But he yells again and keeps running.

With the couple, the pig, cow, and horse all chasing him, he stays ahead of them all until
he comes to a river. He can't cross it as it would make him soggy and fall apart. With the
hungry animals chasing him he has to figure out a way across the river. He meets a fox
there who offers to help him. The fox tells him to get on his back and the fox then swims
through the river. The fox tells him that the water is getting deeper and he'll have to get
up onto his head. The fox continues to do this until The Gingerbread Man is on his nose.
He then tosses The Gingerbread Man into the air and catches him in his mouth before
eating him.
Bawang Merah and Bawang Putih
The story takes place in a simple village household. The head of this family has two
wives, and each wife has their own daughter. Bawang Merah and her mother are jealous
of the attention the father gives Bawang Putih and her mother. When the father dies,
Bawang Merah and her mother take charge of the household and bully Bawang Putih into
servitude. Bawang Putih’s mother stands up for her daughter but she soon dies
prematurely, in some versions due to sickness and in some versions due to the intentional
malice of Bawang Merah's mother.With her biological mother and father dead, the gentle
and obedient Bawang Putih is left alone to be tortured by her cruel stepmother and half-
sister. Though Bawang Putih suffers, she is patient. One day, when she is out in the
woods, she sees a pond containing a live fish. The fish is able to speak, and tells her that
it is her mother who has came back to comfort her. Bawang is was overjoyed to be able
to speak with her mother again, and secretly visits the pond whenever she can.One day
Bawang Merah sees Bawang Putih sneaking off and secretly follows her to the pond,
where she witnesses Bawang Putih talking to the fish. After Bawang Putih leaves,
Bawang Merah lures the fish to the surface of the pond and catches it. Bawang Merah
and her mother kill the fish, cook it and feed it to Bawang Putih without telling her where
it came from. Once Bawang Putih finishes eating, her stepmother and stepsister reveal
where they obtained the fish. Bawang Putih is repulsed and filled with remorse over this
revelation.Bawang Putih gathers the fish bones and bury them in a small grave
underneath a tree. When she visits the grave the next day, she is surprised to see that a
beautiful swing has appeared from one of the tree's branches. When Bawang Putih sits in
the swing and sings an old lullaby, it magically swings back and forth.Bawang Putih
continues to visit the magic swing whenever she can. One day, while she was is on the
magic swing, a Prince who is hunting nearby hears her song. He follows the sound of her
voice, but before he approach her, Bawang Putih realises that she is not alone, she
quickly runs back home.The Prince and his advisors eventually find the home of Bawang
Putih and Bawang Merah. (In some versions this happens immediately after the Prince's
first sighting of Bawang Putih, but in other versions it happens after a long search made
by the Prince's advisors.) Bawang Merah's mother, seeing the opportunity, orders
Bawang Putih to stay hidden in the kitchen. The Prince asks about the swing and the girl
who sat in it. Bawang Merah's mother says that the girl he heard is her beautiful and
talented daughter Bawang Merah. Though the Prince agrees that Bawang Merah is
beautiful, he requests that she show him how she sang in the magical swing.Bawang
Merah and mother reluctantly follow the Prince and his advisors back to the magic swing.
Bawang Merah sits in the swing and attempts to sing so that it will move, but she cannot.
The Prince, now angry, ordered Bawang Merah's mother to tell the truth. Bawang
Merah's mother is forced to confess that she has another daughter hidden in her
house.The Prince brings Bawang Putih back to the swing, and as she had done many
times before, the magic swing starts moving as soon as she begins singing. The Prince is
overjoyed and asks Bawang Putih to marry him. She agrees and they live happily ever
after.
The Widow and Her Three Sons
One day a poor woman approached Mr. Lincoln for an interview. She was somewhat
advanced in years and plainly clad, wearing a faded shawl and worn hood."Well, my
good woman," said Mr. Lincoln, "what can I do for you this morning?""Mr. President,"
answered she, "my husband and three sons all went into the army. My husband was killed
in battle. I get along very badly since then living all alone, and I thought that I would
come and ask you to release to me my eldest son."Mr. Lincoln looked in her face for a
moment, and then replied kindly,"Certainly! Certainly! If you have given us ALL, and
your prop has been taken away, you are justly entitled to one of your boys."He then made
out an order discharging the young man, which the woman took away, thanking him
gratefully.She went to the front herself with the President's order, and found that her son
had been mortally wounded in a recent battle, and taken to the hospital.She hastened to
the hospital. But she was too late, the boy died, and she saw him laid in a soldier's
grave.She then returned to the President with his order, on the back of which the
attendant surgeon had stated the sad facts concerning the young man it was intended to
discharge.Mr. Lincoln was much moved by her story, and said: "I know what you wish
me to do now, and I shall do it without your asking. I shall release to you your second
son."Taking up his pen he began to write the order, while the grief-stricken woman stood
at his side and passed her hand softly over his head, and stroked his rough hair as she
would have stroked her boy's.When he had finished he handed her the paper, saying
tenderly, his eyes full of tears,"Now you have one of the two left, and I have one, that is
no more than right."She took the order and reverently placing her hand upon his head,
said, "The Lord bless you, Mr. President. May you live a thousand years, and may you
always be the head of this great nation."