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 their Father was quite near because they could hear the sound of an axe. It was no axe, however, but a branch which the Man had tied to a dead tree, and which blew backwards and forwards against it. They sat there such a long time that they got tired, their eyes began to close, and they were soon fast asleep.

When they woke it was dark night. Grethel began to cry: ‘How shall we ever get out of the wood!’

But Hansel comforted her, and said: ‘Wait a little till the moon rises, then we will soon find our way.’

When the full moon rose, Hansel took his little sister’s hand, and they walked on, guided by the pebbles, which glittered like newly-coined money. They walked the whole night, and at daybreak they found themselves back at their Father’s cottage.

They knocked at the door, and when the Woman opened it and saw Hansel and Grethel, she said: ‘You bad children, why did you sleep so long in the wood? We thought you did not mean to come back any more.’

But their Father was delighted, for it had gone to his heart to leave them behind alone.

Not long after they were again in great destitution, and the children heard the Woman at night in bed say to their Father: ‘We have eaten up everything again but half a loaf, and then we are at the end of everything. The children must go away; we will take them further into the forest so that they won’t be able to find their way back. There is nothing else to be done.’

The Man took it much to heart, and said: ‘We had better share our last crust with the children.’

But the Woman would not listen to a word he said, she only scolded and reproached him. Any one who once says A must also say B, and as he had given in the first time, he had to do so the second also. The children were again wide awake and heard what was said.

When the old people went to sleep Hansel again got up,