The Selected Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm: "Hansel and Gretel" by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm

He had little to bite and to break, and once when great dearth fell on the land, he could no longer procure even daily bread.

‘Be quiet, Gretel,’ said Hansel, ‘do not distress yourself, I will soon find a way to help us.’

Then he went back and said to Gretel: ‘Be comforted, dear little sister, and sleep in peace, God will not forsake us,’ and he lay down again in his bed.

When day dawned, but before the sun had risen, the woman came and awoke the two children, saying: ‘Get up, you sluggards! We are going into the forest to fetch wood.’

It was not the axe, however, but a branch which he had fastened to a withered tree which the wind was blowing backwards and forwards.

And as they had been sitting such a long time, their eyes closed with fatigue, and they fell fast asleep.

Not long afterwards, there was once more great dearth throughout the land, and the children heard their mother saying at night to their father: ‘Everything is eaten again, we have one half loaf left, and that is the end. The children must go, we will take them farther into the wood, so that they will not find their way out again; there is no other means of saving ourselves!’

The woman, however, would listen to nothing that he had to say, but scolded and reproached him.

They did not awake until it was dark night, and Hansel comforted his little sister and said: ‘Just wait, Gretel, until the moon rises, and then we shall see the crumbs of bread which I have strewn about, they will show us our way home again.’

And as they were so weary that their legs would carry them no longer, they lay down beneath a tree and fell asleep.

And when its song was over, it spread its wings and flew away before them, and they followed it until they reached a little house, on the roof of which it alighted; and when they approached the little house they saw that it was built of bread and covered with cakes, but that the windows were of clear sugar.

The old woman had only pretended to be so kind; she was in reality a wicked witch, who lay in wait for children, and had only built the little house of bread in order to entice them there.

Witches have red eyes, and cannot see far, but they have a keen scent like the beasts, and are aware when human beings draw near.

When Hansel and Gretel came into her neighbourhood, she laughed with malice, and said mockingly: ‘I have them, they shall not escape me again!’

How they did rejoice and embrace each other, and dance about and kiss each other!