Once a baker baked some bread That sprang to life -- it sprouted arms And legs and shook its wheaty head. The baker froze in white alarm, For never had he seen such things -- A loaf of bread under a charm! Around the bread danced, in a ring, Then caught aflame; 'twas blackened ash Before he saw the fairy king. The door flung open in a crash -- There stood the grim-faced king himself. The baker quaked as out the lash Of fury stung, his life to thrash.