The Princess and Pea Story for Kids
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."
"O father," said Hansel, "lam looking at my
little white kitten, who is sitting up on the roof to bid me good-bye." -
"You young fool," said the woman, "that is not your kitten, but
the sunshine on the chimney-pot." Of course Hansel had not been looking at
his kitten, but had been taking every now and then a flint from his pocket and
dropping it on the road. When they reached the middle of the forest the father
told the children to collect wood to make a fire to keep them, warm; and Hansel
and Grethel gathered brushwood enough for a little mountain j and it was set on
fire, and when the flame was burning quite high the wife said, "Now lie
down by the fire and rest yourselves, you children, and we will go and cut
wood; and when we are ready we will come and fetch you."
So Hansel and Grethel sat by the fire, and at noon they each
ate their pieces of bread. They thought their father was in the wood all the
time, as they seemed to hear the strokes of the axe: but really it was only a
dry branch hanging to a withered tree that the wind moved to and fro. So when
they had stayed there a long time their eyelids closed with weariness, and they
fell fast asleep.
When at last they woke it was night, and Grethel began to
cry, and said, "How shall we ever get out of this wood? "But Hansel
comforted her, saying, "Wait a little while longer, until the moon rises,
and then we can easily find the way home." And when the full moon got up
Hansel took his little sister by the hand, and followed the way where the flint
stones shone like silver, and showed them the road. They walked on the whole
night through, and at the break of day they came to their father's house. They
knocked at the door, and when the wife opened it and saw that it was Hansel and
Grethel she said, "You naughty children, why did you sleep so long in the
wood? we thought you were never coming home again!" But the father was
glad, for it had gone to his heart to leave them both in the woods alone.