![]() “I’m cold and hungry and I want to go home!” But when night fell, they saw to their horror that all the crumbs had gone. “I’ve left a trail, like last time!” Hänsel whispered to Gretel, consolingly. Again, with a lame excuse, the woodcutter left his two children by themselves. When they saw him, they flew along behind and in no time at all, had eaten all the crumbs. But the little boy had forgotten about the hungry birds that lived in the forest. Hänsel, however, had not eaten his bread, and as he walked through the trees, he left a trail of crumbs behind him to mark the way. All night, husband and wife quarrelled, and when dawn came, the woodcutter led the children out into the forest. The wicked stepmother kept Hänsel and Gretel under lock and key all day with nothing for supper but a sip of water and some hard bread. The weak woodcutter protested, torn as he was between shame and fear of disobeying his cruel wife. Stifling her anger in front of the children, she locked her bedroom door, reproaching her husband for failing to carry out her orders. Next day, when their stepmother discovered that Hänsel and Gretel had returned, she went into a rage. Cold, tired but thankful to be home again, they slipped into bed. They crept through a half-open window, without wakening their parents. “We’ll get home safely, you’ll see!” The tiny white pebbles gleaming in the moonlight showed the children their way home. The moon was shining bright as day, and the white pebbles glittered like new silver coins. “Don’t cry, trust me! I swear I’ll take you home even if Father doesn’t come back for us!” Luckily the moon was full that night and Hänsel waited till its cold light filtered through the trees. ![]() Hänsel too felt scared but he tried to hide his feelings and comfort his sister. Night fell but the woodcutter did not return. At a certain point, the two children found they really were alone: the woodcutter had plucked up enough courage to desert them, had mumbled an excuse and was gone. But as they went into the depths of the trees, Hänsel dropped a little white pebble here and there on the mossy green ground. All night long, the woodcutter’s wife harped on and on at her husband till, at dawn, he led Hänsel and Gretel away into the forest. And slipping out of the house he filled his pockets with little white pebbles, then went back to bed. “Don’t worry! If they do leave us in the forest, we’ll find the way home,” he said. Hänsel who, one evening, had overheard his parents’ conversation, comforted Gretel. “Take them miles from home, so far that they can never find their way back! Maybe someone will find them and give them a home.” The downcast woodcutter didn’t know what to do. And she kept on trying to persuade her husband to abandon his children in the forest. There are too many mouths to feed! We must get rid of the two brats,” she declared. “There is not enough food in the house for us all. The family had little enough to eat, and once there was a great famine in the land the man could no longer even get them their daily bread. His second wife often ill-treated the children and was forever nagging the woodcutter. Once upon a time, on the edge of a great forest, there lived a very poor woodcutter with his wife and his two children, Hänsel and Gretel.
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