HANSEL AND GRETEL

A poor woodcutter lived on the edge of a large forest. He didn't have a bite to eat and barely provided the daily bread for his wife and two children, Hansel and Gretel. It reached a point when he couldn't even provide that anymore. Indeed, he didn't know how to solve this predicament.

One night as he was tossing and turning in bed because of his worries, his wife said to him, "Listen to me, husband, early tomorrow morning you're to take both the children and give them each a piece of bread. Then lead them into the middle of the forest where it's most dense. After you build a fire for them, go away and leave them there. We can no longer feed them."

"No, wife," the man said. "I don't have the heart to take my own children and abandon them to wild beasts, for they'd soon come and tear them apart in the forest."

"If you don't do that," his wife responded, "we shall all have to starve to death."

She didn't give him any peace until he said yes.

The two children were still awake because of their hunger, and they had heard everything that their mother said to their father. Gretel thought, "Now it's all over for me," and began to weep pitiful tears. But Hansel spoke: "Be quiet, Gretel. Don't get upset. I'll find a way to help us."

Upon saying this, he got up, put on his little jacket, opened the bottom half of the door, and crept outside. The moon was shining very brightly, and the white pebbles glittered in front of the house like pure silver coins. Hansel stooped down to the ground and stuffed his pocket with as many pebbles as he could fit in. Then he went back into the house.

"Don't worry, Gretel. Just sleep quietly." And he lay down again in his bed and fell asleep.

Early the next morning, before the sun had even begun to rise, their mother came and woke the two children.

"Get up, children. We're going into the forest. Here's a piece of bread for each of you. But be smart and don't eat it until noon."

Gretel put the bread under her apron because Hansel had the pebbles in his pocket. Then they all set out together into the forest. After they had walked a while, Hansel stopped still and looked back at the house. He did this time and again until his father said, "Hansel, what are you looking at there and why are you dawdling? Pay attention and march along!"

"Oh, father," said Hansel, "I'm looking at my little white cat that's sitting up on the roof and wants to say good-bye to me."

"You fool," the mother said. "That's not a cat. It's the morning sun shining on the

chimney."

But Hansel had not been looking at the cat. Instead, he had been looking at the shiny pebbles from his pocket that he had been dropping on the ground. When they reached the middle of the forest, the father said, "Children, I want you to gather some wood. I'm going to make a fire so you won't get cold."

Hansel and Gretel gathered together some brushwood and built quite a nice little pile. The brushwood was soon kindled, and when the fire was ablaze, the mother said, "Now, children, lie down by the fire and sleep. We're going into the forest to chop wood. When we're finished, we'll come back and get you."

Hansel and Gretel sat by the fire, and when noon came, they kept eating their pieces of bread until evening. But their mother and father did not return. Nobody came to fetch them. When it became pitch dark, Gretel began to weep, but Hansel said, "Just wait awhile until the moon has risen."

And when the full moon had risen, Hansel took Gretel by the hand. The pebbles glittered like newly minted silver coins and showed them the way. They walked the whole night long and arrived back at their father's house at break of day. Their father rejoiced with all his heart when he saw his children again, for he had not liked the idea of abandoning them alone in the forest. Their mother also seemed to be delighted by their return, but secretly she was angry.

Not long after this, there was once again nothing to eat in the house, and one evening Gretel heard her mother say to their father: "The children found their way back one time, and I just let that go, but now there's nothing left in the house except for a half loaf of bread. Tomorrow you must take them farther into the forest so they won't find their way back home again. Otherwise, there's no hope for us."

All this saddened the father, and he thought, "It'd be much better to share your last bite to eat with your children." But since he had given in the first time, he also had to yield a second.

Hansel and Gretel overheard their parents' conversation. Then Hansel got up and intended to gather pebbles once again, but their parents had locked the door. Nevertheless, he comforted Gretel and said, "Just sleep, dear Gretel. The dear Lord will certainly help us."

Early the next morning they each received little pieces of bread, but they were smaller than the last time. On the way into the forest Hansel crumbled the bread in his pocket and stopped as often as he could to throw the crumbs on the ground.

"Hansel, why are you always stopping and looking around?" asked the father. "Keep going!"

"Oh, I'm looking at my little pigeon that's sitting on the roof and wants to say good­bye to me," Hansel answered.

"You fool!" his mother said. "That's not your little pigeon. It's the morning sun shining on the chimney."

Now their mother led the children even deeper into the forest until they came to a spot they had never been to before in their lives. Once again they were to sleep by a large fire, and their parents were to come and fetch them in the evening.

When noon came, Gretel shared her bread with Hansel because he had scattered his along the way. Noon went by and then evening passed, but no one came for the poor children. Hansel comforted Gretel and said, "Just wait until the moon has risen, Gretel. Then I'll see the little bread crumbs that I scattered. They'll show us the way back home."

When the moon rose and Hansel looked for the bread crumbs, they were gone because the many thousands of birds that fly about the forest had found them and gobbled them up. Nevertheless, Hansel believed he could find the way home and pulled Gretel along with him, but they soon lost their way in the great wilderness. They walked the entire night and all the next day as well, from morning till night, until they fell asleep from exhaustion. Then they walked for one more day, but they didn't find their way out of the forest. They were now also very hungry, for they had had nothing to eat except some berries that they had found growing on the ground.

On the third day they continued walking until noon. Then they came to a little house made of bread with cake for a roof and pure sugar for windows.

"Let's sit down and eat until we're full," said Hansel. "I want to eat a piece of the roof. Gretel, you can have part of the window since it's sweet."

Hansel had already eaten a good piece of the roof and Gretel had devoured a couple of small round windows and was about to break off a new one when they heard a shrill voice cry from inside:

"Nibble, nibble, I hear a louse!

Who's that nibbling on my house?"

Hansel and Gretel were so tremendously frightened that they dropped what they had in their hands, and immediately thereafter a small, ancient woman crept out of the door. She shook her head and said, "Well now, dear children, where've you come from? Come inside with me. You'll have a good time."

She took them both by the hand and led them into her little house. Then she served them a good meal of milk and pancakes with sugar and apples and nuts. Afterward she made up two beautiful beds, and when Hansel and Gretel lay down in them, they thought they were in heaven.

The old woman, however, was really a wicked witch on the lookout for children and had built the house made of bread only to lure them to her. As soon as she had any children in her power, she would kill, cook, and eat them. It would be like a feast day for her. Therefore, she was quite happy that Hansel and Gretel had come her way.

Early the next morning, before the children were awake, she got up and looked at the two of them sleeping so sweetly, and she was delighted and thought, "They'll certainly be a tasty meal for you!"

Then she grabbed Hansel and stuck him into a small coop, and when he woke up, he was behind a wire mesh used to lock up chickens, and he couldn't move about.

Immediately after, she shook Gretel and yelled, "Get up, you lazybones! Fetch some water, and then go into the kitchen and cook something nice. Your brother's sitting in a chicken coop. I want to fatten him up, and when he's fat enough, I'm going to eat him. But now I want you to feed him."

Gretel was frightened and wept, but she had to do what the witch demanded. So the very best food was cooked for poor Hansel so that he would become fat, while Gretel got nothing but crab shells. Every day the old woman came and called out, "Hansel, stick out your finger so I can feel whether you're fat enough."

However, Hansel stuck out a little bone, and the witch was continually puzzled that Hansel didn't get any fatter.

One evening, after a month had passed, she said to Gretel, "Get a move on and fetch some water! I don't care whether your little brother's fat enough or not. He's going to be slaughtered and boiled tomorrow. In the meantime I want to prepare the dough so that we can also bake."

So Gretel went off with a sad heart and fetched the water in which Hansel was to be boiled. Early the next morning Gretel had to get up, light the fire, and hang up a kettle full of water.

"Make sure that it boils," said the witch. "I'm going to light the fire in the oven and shove the bread inside."

Gretel was standing in the kitchen and wept bloody tears and thought, "It would have been better if the wild animals in the forest had eaten us. Then we would have died together and wouldn't have had to bear this sorrow, and I wouldn't have to boil the water that will be the death of my dear brother. Oh dear God, help us poor children get out of this predicament!"

Then the old woman called: "Gretel, come right away over here to the oven!"

When Gretel came, she said, "Look inside and see if the bread is already nice and brown and well-done. My eyes are weak. I can no longer see so well from a distance, and if you can't see, then sit down on the board, and I'll shove you inside. Then you can get around inside and check everything."

The witch wanted to shut the oven door once Gretel was inside, for she wanted to bake her in the hot oven and eat her, too. This is what the wicked witch had planned and why she had called the girl. But God inspired Gretel, and she said, "I don't know how to do it. First you show it to me. Sit down on the board, and I'll shove you inside."

And so the old woman sat down on the board, and since she was light, Gretel shoved her inside as far as she could, and then she quickly shut the oven door and bolted it with an iron bar. The old woman began to scream and groan in the hot oven, but Gretel ran off, and the witch was miserably burned to death.

Meanwhile, Gretel went straight to Hansel and opened the door to the coop. After Hansel jumped out, they kissed each other and were glad. The entire house was full of jewels and pearls. So they filled their pockets with them. Then they went off and found their way home. Their father rejoiced when he saw them again. He hadn't spent a single happy day since his children had been away. Now he was a rich man. However, the mother had died.