Hansel and Gretel

Close by a great forest there lived a poor woodcutter with his wife and his two children. The boy was called Hansel and the girl Gretel. They had little enough to eat at the best of times, and when a great famine came over the land, the woodcutter could no longer put bread on the table.

One night, as he lay awake with worry, he sighed to his wife, "What will become of us? How can we feed our children when we have nothing left even for ourselves?"

"I'll tell you what," said the woman. "Tomorrow we'll take the children deep into the forest. We'll light them a fire and give them each a little bread, then leave them there. They won't find their way home, and we'll have one less mouth to feed."

"No," said the man. "I could never leave my own children alone in the forest." But his wife gave him no peace until at last, unhappily, he agreed.

The children had not been able to sleep either, and they heard everything through the wall. Gretel wept, but Hansel whispered, "Hush, Gretel. Don't be afraid. I'll find a way to help us." When their parents were asleep, he crept outside. The moon was bright, and the white pebbles before the door shone like little silver coins. Hansel filled his pockets with as many as they would hold, then came back to bed. "Sleep well, little sister," he said. "God will not forsake us."

In the morning their stepmother woke them early and gave each a small piece of bread. "Save it for midday," she said, "for there will be nothing more." Then the family set off into the forest together.

Hansel kept lagging behind, looking back at the house. "What are you looking at, boy?" his father asked. "I'm saying goodbye to my little white cat on the roof," said Hansel. "Foolish child, that's only the morning sun on the chimney," scolded the woman. But really, each time he stopped, Hansel was dropping a pebble on the path.

Deep in the forest, their father built them a fire and told them to rest while the grown-ups cut wood nearby. The children waited, hearing what they thought were axe-strokes — but it was only a branch knocking in the wind. They grew tired and fell asleep, and when they woke it was black night. Gretel began to cry, but Hansel said, "Wait for the moon." When it rose, the pebbles glimmered like silver, and the children followed them all the way home. Their stepmother scolded them for staying away so long, but their father was overjoyed, for it had grieved his heart to leave them.

Not long after, hunger came again, worse than before. Hansel and Gretel heard their stepmother in the night saying they must be led even deeper into the woods this time, so they could never find their way back. Their father's heart was heavy, but again he could not refuse her.

That night Hansel tried to slip out for more pebbles, but the door had been locked. "Don't cry, Gretel," he said. "God will help us yet." In the morning, with an even smaller piece of bread in his pocket, he crumbled it as they walked, dropping bits along the path instead of pebbles.

Once more they were left by a fire in the forest, deeper than before, and once more they fell asleep waiting. When the moon rose, they looked for the crumbs — but the birds of the forest had eaten every one. "We'll find the way," Hansel said, though his voice trembled. They walked on and on, through that day and the next, growing hungrier and wearier, with only a few berries to eat.

On the third day, they saw a snow-white bird singing so sweetly that they stopped to listen. When it finished, it flew off just ahead of them, and they followed it until they came upon a strange little house. Its walls were bread, its roof was cake, and its windows were clear, gleaming sugar.

"Let's have ourselves a meal," said Hansel, and he broke off a piece of the roof while Gretel nibbled at a window. Then a soft voice called from inside:

"Nibble, nibble, little mouse, who's that nibbling at my house?"

The children answered:

"Only the wind, so wild and free,"

and kept right on eating. Suddenly the door opened, and out came an old, old woman leaning on a crutch. The children were frightened and dropped what they held, but she only smiled. "Dear children, come in and stay with me. No harm will come to you." She fed them milk and pancakes, apples and nuts, and tucked them into soft white beds, and they thought they had found paradise.

But the old woman was not kind at all — she was a wicked witch who built her sweet little house only to lure children to her, and when one came into her power, she cooked and ate them. Early the next morning, before the children woke, she seized Hansel with her bony hand and locked him away in a little stable. Then she shook Gretel awake. "Get up, lazy girl. Cook something good for your brother — he's to be fattened, and when he's fat, I'll eat him." Gretel wept, but she had no choice.

Each morning the witch went to the stable and called, "Hansel, stick out your finger, so I can feel if you're getting fat." But Hansel, clever boy, held out a little bone instead, and the witch, whose eyes were weak, could never understand why he stayed so thin. After four weeks, her patience ran out. "Fat or not," she told Gretel, "tomorrow I will cook him."

The next morning, she made Gretel heat the great oven. "Crawl in," said the witch, "and see if it's hot enough for the bread." But Gretel understood what she meant to do. "I don't know how," she said. "Show me." The witch huffed, "Silly girl, the opening is big enough — look, even I could fit," and she leaned in to show her. Then Gretel gave her a great push, shut the iron door fast, and bolted it. And that was the end of the wicked witch.

Gretel ran straight to the stable. "Hansel! We're free! The witch is gone!" Hansel sprang out like a bird set loose from its cage, and the two of them hugged and laughed and danced for joy. Inside the little house they found chests filled with pearls and jewels. "These are even better than pebbles," said Hansel, filling his pockets, and Gretel filled her apron too. "Now let's go home," said Hansel.

Before long they came to a wide stretch of water, with no bridge in sight. "There's a white duck," said Gretel, and she called out:

"Little duck, little duck, here we stand, Gretel and Hansel upon the sand. There's no bridge or plank in sight — carry us over on your back so white."

The duck swam close, and carried them across one at a time, since Gretel would not let it bear them both together. On the far side, the forest grew familiar, and soon they saw their father's house ahead. They ran the rest of the way and threw their arms around their father, who had grieved for them every single day since they'd been lost. Their stepmother, they learned, had since died.

Gretel shook out her apron, and pearls and jewels bounced across the floor, and Hansel added handful after handful from his pockets. Their troubles were over at last, and the three of them lived together happily, ever after.