Hansel and Gretel
Near a great forest there lived a poor woodcutter and his
wife, and his two children; the boy's name was Hansel and the girl's Grethel.
They had very little to bite or to sup, and once, when there was great dearth
in the land, the man could not even gain the daily bread. As he lay in bed one
night thinking of this, and turning and tossing, he sighed heavily, and said to
his wife, "What will become of us? we cannot even feed our children; there
is nothing left for ourselves."
"I will tell you what, husband," answered the
wife; "we will take the children early in the morning into the forest,
where it is thickest; we will make them a fire, and we will give each of them a
piece of bread, then we will go to our work and leave them alone; they will
never find the way home again, and we shall be quit of them."
"No, wife," said the man, "I cannot do that;
I cannot find in my heart to take my children into the forest and to leave them
there alone; the wild animals would soon come and devour them." - "O
you fool," said she, "then we will all four starve; you had better
get the coffins ready," and she left him no peace until he consented. "But
I really pity the poor children," said the man.
The two children had not been able to sleep for hunger, and
had heard what their step-mother had said to their father. Grethel wept
bitterly, and said to Hansel, "It is all over with us."
"Do be quiet, Grethel," said Hansel, "and do
not fret; 1 will manage something." And when the parents had gone to sleep
he got up, put on his little coat, opened the back door, and slipped out. The
moon was shining brightly, and the white flints that lay in front of the house
glistened like pieces of silver. Hansel stooped and filled the little pocket of
his coat as full as it would hold. Then he went back again, and said to Grethel,
"Be easy, dear little sister, and go to sleep quietly; God will not
forsake us," and laid himself down again in his bed. When the day was
breaking, and before the sun had risen, the wife came and awakened the two
children, saying, "Get up, you lazy bones; we are going into the forest to
cut wood." Then she gave each of them a piece of bread, and said,
"That is for dinner, and you must not eat it before then, for you will get
no more." Grethel carried the bread under her apron, for Hansel had his
pockets full of the flints. Then they set off all together on their way to the
forest. When they had gone a little way Hansel stood still and looked back
towards the house, and this he did again and again, till his father said to
him, "Hansel, what are you looking at? take care not to forget your
legs."