Hansel and Gretel

A woodcutter's two children heard their stepmother say there was not enough food for four people, and that the children would be taken into the wood and left there. Hansel filled his pockets with white pebbles that night, and the next day he dropped them one by one along the path. When the moon came up they shone, and Hansel and Gretel followed them home.

A few weeks later the door was locked at night, so Hansel had only his breakfast bread. He crumbled it along the path, and the birds ate every crumb before sunset.

They walked for two days. On the third morning they found a house made of gingerbread with a roof of cake and windows of spun sugar, and they ate, because they could not have done anything else.

The old woman who lived there was very kind, and gave them pancakes and beds. She was also a witch with terrible eyesight who had built her house out of food for one reason. In the morning she locked Hansel in a stable to fatten him, and made Gretel do the work.

Every day the witch asked Hansel to put out a finger so she could feel how plump he was. Every day he put out a chicken bone instead.

After a month the witch lost patience and told Gretel to climb into the oven and check it was hot. Gretel said she did not know how. The witch bent down to show her, and Gretel shoved her in and dropped the bar across the door.

They filled their pockets with pearls and gold, crossed a wide river on the back of a white duck, and came home to a father who had not had a happy hour since.