Hansel and Grethel in the Wood

Once upon a time, a boy named Hansel, and a girl named Grethel, spent the night in the Wood.

They had very little to bite or to sup, so, in order that Grethel would not weep for food, and say “it is all over.” Hansel gathered what he could, from the wood.

“Do not fret, Grethel, for I have managed to find a squirrel, berry nuts, and more than enough straw for our night.” And with the moon shining brightly, his white flint sparked a fire, and their evening past into darkness.

Hansel spoke to Grethel in her slumber, “Be easy, darling sister, and sleep quietly; God will not forsake us tonight,” and he laid her down against him in her bed.

He quickly found himself taking more delight in the fire and the wood than in eating and sleeping, so he decided that he would venture into the night while Grethel slept.

“Don’t wake” Hansel said, and he placed cut wood into fire, and it grew.

Now he left again to the forest, and each time he returned, he brought more pickings from the wood.

When day was breaking, and before the sun had risen, Hansel came and awakened Grethel, saying “Get up, darling.”

And Grethel looked around, and saw that Hansel was beginning to build a house round her.

“Hansel, what are you doing? Are we not making the journey home today, out of the wood?”

“O, Grethel,” said Hansel, “It is our house, which is waiting for its roof. We will tell mother and footer good-bye, and we will live in this house, with a little white kitten, here, in the wood.” - “But Hansel,” Said Grethel, “where is this white kitten?” “Wait a little while longer, until the moon rises again, and it will easily find its way here.”

And when the full moon came, Hansel made flint into fire and built a road into the wood. He worked on it the whole night, and at the break of day their house was built.

When Grethel once again opened her eyes, she saw that it was day break, and thought, “Why did I sleep so long, in these wood? A day without dawn is a day that is gone!” But Hansel was glad, for her heart could sleep in the house he built, in comfort.

Not very long after that, Grethel came to Hansel, and said, “Everything is finished up; we have a house, a road out of the wood, a birdhouse, enough food for winter, and a stack of firewood bigger than the largest tree. And after that, a snow-white kitten, and now children of the forest, too, and farther into the wood, another house, that those children should find their way back again. And after that the tale comes to an end.”

Hansel replied. “He who says A must say B too, and when a man has given once, has to do it a second time.” And she heard all the talk, and when she went asleep, Hansel still got up to go out and get more flint stones, as he did before.

“Hansel, what are you staring for” said Grethel.

“I am looking at my little birds, trying to say good-bye to me,” answered Hansel.

“But Hansel,” said Grethel, “that is no birdhouse, that is a shining chimney pot!”

“Hansel went on as before, and strewed bread crumbs all along one side of the road, and birds led in, where they would be for all their lives. And again a large fire was made, and Grethel said, “Hansel, when you are tired, you can go to sleep; we are in the forest with enough wood, and when our home is ready the children may fetch you.”

So night came and Grethel shared her bread with Hansel, who had built the road in the wood. Then they went to sleep, and evening passed, and no evil spirits came for the children who stayed with them.

When they awoke it was a dark night, and Hansel comforted his little sister, and said, “Wait a little, Grethel, until the sun gets up, and we shall see the birds and home I have built, and the road along it.”

So when the sun rose they were both up, and from their crumbs of bread, birds of the wood and of the fields and came and picked them up.

And the next day, they could find their way around the wood, to a tree where they could lay and fall asleep, and Hansel too built the path so they could find their way out of the wood.

It was now the that Hansel and Grethel had found themselves deeper in the wood, building a third house, when a pretty snow-white bird began to sing, and again, the evening passed, and no evil spirits came for the children.

Grethel pulled out a large round window-pane, and sat down and began upon it, and the door opened, and the white-cat came, leaning upon her as she work. Grethel nodded her head and said, “Ah, dear children, you come here? You must come here. Come indoors and stay with me, you be in no trouble.” So she took them by the hand and led them into her little house, where they ate sugar, apples, pancakes, and nuts. Grethel laid them down, and thought they were in heaven.

The cat, was also a wicked witch, who lay in wait for the children, and once they were inside, she used to kill them, cook them, and eat them, and then it was a feast day with her. When she knew that Hansel and Grethel were gone, she gave a spiteful laugh, and said triumphantly, “I have them, and they shall not escape me!”

Early in the morning, before the children of the wood were awake, she got up to look at them, and as they lay sleeping so peacefully with round rosy cheeks, she said to herself, “What a fine feast I shall have!” Then she grasped a boy with her hand hand, and led him to a stable, and shut him up behind a grating; and call and scream as he might, it was no good.

Then she went back to a kitten and shook against Grethel, meowing “fetch me water and cook something nice for your kitten.”

When, now, four children of the woods had gone missing, Hansel lost patience and began to wonder if beasts had taken them.

He prayed to God, saying “Dear God, pray help the children of the wood!”

Early the next morning Grethel woke to see Hansel filling a kettle above a fire, and to her surprise, she saw the snow-white kitten approaching him from behind.

Hansel had stooped down and put his head in the oven’s mouth, to prepare bread.

“Creep in,” thought the witch, “and see if it is properly hot, that I may shut the door on thee!”

“The opening is big enough!” Thought the witch, and she leaned to give Hansel a push, into the flames that he went in farther, and shut the iron door upon him, and put up the bar, But Grethel ran toward him, and left the wicked to burn miserably.

She went straight into the pot, and she fell into the fire, oh how frightfully she howled!

“Hansel! The old witch is dead!”

And later, when they opened the oven, out flew a bird from its cage as soon as the door cracked.

And how rejoiced they both were! And how how they fell on the other’s neck! And they danced about, and kissed each other!

And as they had nothing more to fear, they went over to their kitten’s corner, and there stood chests of pearls and precious stones, and Hansel threw it into the fire, and said, “Now, away go! And we are in the witch’s wood.” And they burned the witch’s belongings.

And he said, to Grethel. “We can never get across this. We must pave a stepping stone and a bridge now.”

And Grethel said, “And there is no boat either.” But here comes a snow-white duck; I will ask her if she will help us over,” And so they went on happily, in the wood, until they grew more and more familiar, till at last they saw wood, that Hansel may make himself a big fur cap out of it.