Classic Fairy Tales

Hansel and Gretel

Once upon a time ..... a poor woodcutter lived in a tiny cottage in the forest with his two children, Hansel and Gretel. Their mother had died, and the woodcutter's second wife often ill-treated the children. She was forever nagging the woodcutter.

"There isn't enough food for us all. We must get rid of the two brats!" declared the stepmother. She kept pestering her husband to abandon his children in the forest.

"Take them miles from home, so they'll never find their way back. Maybe someone else will take them in." The unhappy woodcutter didn't know what to do.

Hansel comforted his sister. "Don't worry, Gretel. If they leave us in the forest, we'll find our way home." He slipped out of the house and filled his pockets with little white pebbles, then went back to bed. All night long the woodcutter's wife nagged at her husband. At last, as the sun was rising, he led Hansel and Gretel into the forest.

Hansel secretly dropped the little white pebbles on the mossy green ground. All too soon, however, the woodcutter plucked up the courage to desert them. He membled an excuse and was gone. Night fell. Gretel began to sob bitterly. Hansel felt scared, but tried to hide his feelings. "Be brave and trust me! I'll take you home, even if Father doesn't come back!" Luckily the moon was full that night. Hansel waited until its light shone through the trees. "Now give me your hand!" he said to Gretel. "We'll get home safely, you'll see!" The tiny white pebbles gleamed in the moonlight, and the children found their way home. They crept in through a half-opened window without waking their parents, and slipped into bed.

The next day, when their stepmother discovered that Hansel and Gretel had returned, she flew into a rage. "Why didn't you do as I told you!" she shrieked at her husband.

The weak woodcutter was torn between shame and the fear of disobeying his cruel wife, who kept Hansel and Gretel under lock and key all day. They had nothing to eat, but a crust of bread. All night, the husband and wife quarreled, but when dawn came the woodcutter once again led the children into the forest.

Hansel, however, had not eaten his bread. As he walked through the trees, he left a trail of crumbs behind. But the little boy had forgotten about the hungry birds. They flew along the trail, and in no time had eaten all the crumbs.

Again, the woodcutter left the children with an excuse. "I've made a trail, like last time!" Hansel whispered to Gretel. Alas, when night fell, they saw to their horror that all the crumbs had completely disappeared. "I'm frightened!" wept Gretel bitterly. "I'm cold and hungry and I want to go home."

"Don't be afraid. I'm here to look after you!" said Hansel, but he shivered at the deep shadows and glinting eyes in the darkness. All night the two children huddled together for warmth at the foot of a large tree. When dawn broke, they wandered about the forest looking for a path. Hope soon faded. They were well and truly lost. On and in they walked, until suddenly they came upon a curious cottage in the middle of a glade. They drew closer to the little house.

"Why, this is chocolate!" gasped Hansel, as he broke a lump of plaster from the wall. "And this is icing!" exclaimed Gretel, putting another piece of wall in her mouth. Starving, but delighted, the children began to eat pieces of candy broken off the cottage. "Isn't this delicious?" said Gretel with her mouth full. "We'll stay here," Hansel declared.

They were just about to try a piece of the biscuit door when it swung quietly open. An old woman with a crafty gleam in her eyes peered out at them. "Well, well! Aren't you the sweet-toothed little darlings Come in, come in! You've nothing to fear," crackled the crone, opening the door wider.

No sooner were they inside than the witch - for it was indeed a witch - grabbed Hansel and squeezed his arm. "You're skin and bones. I'll fatten you up!" she snorted, locking him in a cage.

"You can do the housework," she told Gretel grimy, "then I'll make a meal of you too!" As luck would have it, the witch had very weak eyes. "Let me feel your finger!" she would say to Hansel every day, to check if he were any fatter. But Gretel had given him a chicken bone and smeared the witch's eyeglasses with butter. When the old woman went to touch his finger, he held out the bone instead.

"Much too thin!" she would complain. One day the witch grew tired of waiting. "Light the oven," she told Gretel. "We're going to have a tasty boy for dinner!" A little later the impatient old crone snapped, "Run and see if the oven is hot yet!" Gretel returned, whimpering "I can't tell if it's hot enough yet." "Nitwit," the witch screamed. "I'll see for myself." She bent down to peer inside the oven. Gretel gave her a tremendous push and slammed the door shut.

There was a screech and a sizzle, and that was the end of the witch. Gretel ran to free her brother. just to be on the safe side, they fastened the oven door with a large padlock.

The children feasted on the candy house until they discovered a huge chocolate egg. They broke off a piece. There inside lay a treasure chest of gold coins!

"We'll take the coins with us," said Hansel. The two children filled a large basket with food and set off through the forest in search of their home. Luck was with them, and on the second day they saw their father coming toward them, weeping.

"Thank God, I have found you!" he cried. "Your stepmother is dead. Come home with me now, my dear children!"

Hansel and Gretel hugged their father with all their might. "Promise you'll never desert us again," said Gretel. "Look, Father," said Hansel, opening the chest. "We're rich now. You'll never have to chop wood again."

And so they all lived happily together ever after.

THE END

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