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LOSE to a large forest there lived a Woodcutter with his Wife and his two children. The boy was called Hansel, and the girl Grethel. They were always very poor, and had very little to live on; and at one time, when there was famine in the land, he could no longer procure daily bread.

One night he lay in bed worrying over his troubles, and he sighed and said to his Wife: ‘What is to become of us? How are we to feed our poor children when we have nothing for ourselves?’

‘I ’ll tell you what, Husband,’ answered the Woman, ‘to-morrow morning we will take the children out quite early into the thickest part of the forest. We will light a fire, and give each of them a piece of bread; then we will go to our work and leave them alone. They won’t be able to find their way back, and so we shall be rid of them.’

‘Nay, Wife,’ said the Man; ‘we won’t do that. I could never find it in my heart to leave my children alone in the forest; the wild animals would soon tear them to pieces.’

‘What a fool you are!’ she said. ‘Then we must all four die of hunger. You may as well plane the boards for our coffins at once.’

She gave him no peace till he consented. ‘But I grieve over the poor children all the same,’ said the Man.

The two children could not go to sleep for hunger either, and they heard what their Stepmother said to their Father. Grethel wept bitterly, and said: ‘All is over with us now!’

‘Be quiet, Grethel!’ said Hansel. ‘Don’t cry; I will find some way out of it.’