ONCE upon a time there dwelt on the outskirts of a large forest1 a poor woodcutter2 with his wife and two children; the boy was called Hansel3 and the girl Gretel.4 He had always little enough to live on, and once, when there was a great famine5 in the land, he couldn't even provide them with daily bread.6 One night, as he was tossing about in bed, full of cares and worry, he sighed and said to his wife: "What's to become of us? how are we to support our poor children, now that we have nothing more for ourselves?" "I'll tell you what, husband," answered the woman; "early to-morrow morning we'll take the children out into the thickest part of the wood; there we shall light a fire for them and give them each a piece of bread; then we'll go on to our work and leave them alone. They won't be able to find their way home, and we shall thus be rid of them."7 "No, wife," said her husband, "that I won't do; how could I find it in my heart to leave my children alone in the wood?8 The wild beasts would soon come and tear them to pieces." "Oh! you fool," said she, "then we must all four die of hunger, and you may just as well go and plane the boards for our coffins"; and she left him no peace till he consented.9 "But I can't help feeling sorry for the poor children," added the husband.10
The children, too, had not been able to sleep for hunger, and had heard11 what their step-mother12 had said to their father. Gretel wept bitterly and spoke to Hansel: "Now it's all up with us." "No, no, Gretel," said Hansel, "don't fret yourself; I'll be able to find a way to escape, no fear."13 And when the old people had fallen asleep he got up, slipped on his little coat, opened the back door and stole out. The moon14 was shining clearly, and the white pebbles15 which lay in front of the house glittered like bits of silver. Hansel bent down and filled his pocket with as many of them as he could cram in. Then he went back and said to Gretel: "Be comforted, my dear little sister, and go to sleep: God will not desert us";16 and he lay down in bed again.
At daybreak,17 even before the sun was up, the woman came and woke the two children: "Get up, you lie-abeds, we're all going to the forest to fetch wood." She gave them each a bit of bread and said: "There's something for your luncheon, but don't you eat it up before, for it's all you'll get." Gretel took the bread under her apron, as Hansel had the stones in his pocket. Then they all set out together on the way to the forest. After they had walked for a little, Hansel stood still and looked back at the house,18 and this maneuver he repeated again and again. His father observed him, and said: "Hansel, what are you gazing at there, and why do you always remain behind? Take care, and don't lose your footing." "Oh! father," said Hansel, "I am looking back at my white kitten,19 which is sitting on the roof, waving me a farewell." The woman exclaimed: "What a donkey you are! that isn't your kitten, that's the morning sun shining on the chimney." But Hansel had not looked back at his kitten, but had always dropped one of the white20 pebbles out of his pocket on to the path.
When they had reached the middle of the forest the father said: "Now, children, go and fetch a lot of wood, and I'll light a fire21 that you may not feel cold." Hansel and Gretel heaped up brushwood till they had made a pile nearly the size of a small hill. The brushwood was set fire to, and when the flames leaped high the woman said: "Now lie down at the fire, children, and rest yourselves: we are going into the forest to cut down wood; when we've finished we'll come back and fetch you." Hansel and Gretel sat down beside the fire, and at midday ate their little bits of bread. They heard the strokes of the axe,22 so they thought their father was quite near. But it was no axe they heard, but a bough he had tied on a dead tree, and that was blown about by the wind. And when they had sat for a long time their eyes closed with fatigue, and they fell fast asleep. When they awoke at last it was pitch dark. Gretel began to cry, and said: "How are we ever to get out of the wood?" But Hansel comforted her. "Wait a bit," he said, "till the moon is up, and then we'll find our way sure enough." And when the full moon had risen he took his sister by the hand23 and followed the pebbles, which shone like new threepenny bits,24 and showed them the path. They walked on through the night, and at daybreak reached their father's house again. They knocked at the door, and when the woman opened it she exclaimed: "You naughty children,25 what a time you've slept in the wood! we thought you were never going to come back." But the father rejoiced, for his conscience had reproached him for leaving his children behind by themselves.
Not long afterward there was again great dearth in the land, and the children heard their mother address their father thus in bed one night: "Everything is eaten up once more; we have only half a loaf in the house, and when that's done it's all up with us. The children must be got rid of; we'll lead them deeper into the wood this time, so that they won't be able to find their way out again. There is no other way of saving ourselves." The man's heart smote him heavily, and he thought: "Surely it would be better to share the last bite with one's children!" But his wife wouldn't listen to his arguments, and did nothing but scold and reproach him. If a man yields once he's done for, and so, because he had given in the first time, he was forced to do so the second.26
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