And when it had finished its song, 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 came quite up to
little house they saw that it was built of bread and covered with
cakes, but that the windows were of clear sugar. “We will set to work
on that,” said Hansel, “and have a good meal. I will eat a bit of the
roof, and thou, Grethel, canst eat some of the window, it will taste
sweet.” Hansel reached up above, and broke off a little of the roof to
try how it tasted, and Grethel leant against the window and nibbled at
the panes. Then a soft voice cried from the room,

“Nibble, nibble, gnaw,
Who is nibbling at my little house?”


The children answered,

“The wind, the wind,
The heaven-born wind,”


and went on eating without disturbing themselves. Hansel, who thought
the roof tasted very nice, tore down a great piece of it, and Grethel
pushed out the whole of one round window-pane, sat down, and enjoyed
herself with it. Suddenly the door opened, and a very, very old woman,
who supported herself on crutches, came creeping out. Hansel and
Grethel were so terribly frightened that they let fall what they had in
their hands. The old woman, however, nodded her head, and said, “Oh,
you dear children, who has brought you here? Do come in, and stay with
me. No harm shall happen to you.” She took them both by the hand, and
led them into her little house. Then good food was set before them,
milk and pancakes, with sugar, apples, and nuts. Afterwards two pretty
little beds were covered with clean white linen, and Hansel and Grethel
lay down in them, and thought they were in heaven. 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. When a child fell
into her power, she killed it, cooked and ate it, and that was a feast
day with her. 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 Grethel came into her neighborhood, she laughed
maliciously, and said mockingly, “I have them, they shall not escape me
again!” Early in the morning before the children were awake, she was
already up, and when she saw both of them sleeping and looking so
pretty, with their plump red cheeks, she muttered to herself, “That
will be a dainty mouthful!” Then she seized Hansel with her shrivelled
hand, carried him into a little stable, and shut him in with a grated
door. He might scream as he liked, that was of no use. Then she went to
Grethel, shook her till she awoke, and cried, “Get up, lazy thing,
fetch some water, and cook something good for thy brother, he is in the
stable outside, and is to be made fat. When he is fat, I will eat him.”
Grethel began to weep bitterly, but it was all in vain, she was forced
to do what the wicked witch ordered her. And now the best food was cooked for poor Hansel, but Grethel got
nothing but crab-shells. Every morning the woman crept to the little
stable, and cried, “Hansel, stretch out thy finger that I may feel if
thou wilt soon be fat.” Hansel, however, stretched out a little bone to
her, and the old woman, who had dim eyes, could not see it, and thought
it was Hansel’s finger, and was astonished that there was no way of
fattening him. When four weeks had gone by, and Hansel still continued
thin, she was seized with impatience and would not wait any longer. “Hola, Grethel,” she cried to the girl, “be active, and bring some
water. Let Hansel be fat or lean, to-morrow I will kill him, and cook
him.” Ah, how the poor little sister did lament when she had to fetch
the water, and how her tears did flow down over her cheeks! “Dear God,
do help us,” she cried. “If the wild beasts in the forest had but
devoured us, we should at any rate have died together.” “Just keep thy
noise to thyself,” said the old woman, “all that won’t help thee at
all.”

Early in the morning, Grethel had to go out and hang up the cauldron
with the water, and light the fire. “We will bake first,” said the old
woman, “I have already heated the oven, and kneaded the dough.” She
pushed poor Grethel out to the oven, from which flames of fire were
already darting. “Creep in,” said the witch, “and see if it is properly
heated, so that we can shut the bread in.” And when once Grethel was
inside, she intended to shut the oven and let her bake in it, and then
she would eat her, too. But Grethel saw what she had in her mind, and
said, “I do not know how I am to do it; how do you get in?” “Silly
goose,” said the old woman, “The door is big enough; just look, I can
get in myself!” and she crept up and thrust her head into the oven. Then Grethel gave her a push that drove her far into it, and shut the
iron door, and fastened the bolt. Oh! then she began to howl quite
horribly, but Grethel ran away, and the godless witch was miserably
burnt to death. Grethel, however, ran like lightning to Hansel, opened his little
stable, and cried, “Hansel, we are saved! The old witch is dead!” Then
Hansel sprang out like a bird from its cage when the door is opened for
it. How they did rejoice and embrace each other, and dance about and
kiss each other! And as they had no longer any need to fear her, they
went into the witch’s house, and in every corner there stood chests
full of pearls and jewels. “These are far better than pebbles!” said
Hansel, and thrust into his pockets whatever could be got in, and
Grethel said, “I, too, will take something home with me,” and filled
her pinafore full. “But now we will go away.” said Hansel, “that we may
get out of the witch’s forest.”

When they had walked for two hours, they came to a great piece of
water. “We cannot get over,” said Hansel, “I see no foot-plank, and no
bridge.” “And no boat crosses either,” answered Grethel, “but a white
duck is swimming there; if I ask her, she will help us over.” Then she
cried,

“Little duck, little duck, dost thou see,
Hansel and Grethel are waiting for thee? There’s never a plank, or bridge in sight,
Take us across on thy back so white.”


The duck came to them, and Hansel seated himself on its back, and told
his sister to sit by him. “No,” replied Grethel, “that will be too
heavy for the little duck; she shall take us across, one after the
other.” The good little duck did so, and when they were once safely
across and had walked for a short time, the forest seemed to be more
and more familiar to them, and at length they saw from afar their
father’s house. Then they began to run, rushed into the parlour, and
threw themselves into their father’s arms. The man had not known one
happy hour since he had left the children in the forest; the woman,
however, was dead. Grethel emptied her pinafore until pearls and
precious stones ran about the room, and Hansel threw one handful after
another out of his pocket to add to them.