ong.

The mother led the children deep into the wood, where they had never
been before, and there, making an immense fire, she said to them, "Sit
down here and rest, and when you feel tired you can sleep for a little
while. We are going into the forest to hew wood, and in the evening,
when we are ready, we will come and fetch you."

When noon came Gretel shared her bread with Hansel, who had strewn his
on the path. They then went to sleep; but the evening arrived and no one
came to visit the poor children, and in the dark night they awoke, and
Hansel comforted his sister by saying, "Only wait, Gretel, till the moon
comes out, then we shall see the crumbs of bread which I have dropped,
and they will show us the way home."

When the moon shone they got up, but they could not see any crumbs, for
the thousands of birds which had been flying about in the woods and
fields had picked them all up. Hansel kept saying to Gretel, "We will
soon find the way." But they did not. They walked the whole night long
and the next day, but still they did not come out of the wood; and they
got very hungry, for they had nothing to eat but the berries which they
found upon the bushes. Soon they got so tired that they could not drag
themselves along, so they lay down under a tree and went to sleep.

It was now the third morning since they had left their father's house,
and they still walked on; but they only got deeper and deeper into the
wood, and Hansel saw that if help did not come very soon they would die
of hunger. About the middle of the day they saw a beautiful snow-white
bird sitting on a bough, which sang so sweetly that they stood still and
listened to it. It soon left off and, spreading its wings, flew away.
They followed it until it arrived at a cottage, upon the roof of which
it perched; and when they went close up to it they saw that the cottage
was made of bread and cakes, and the window-panes were of clear sugar.

"We will go in there," said Hansel, "and have a glorious feast. I will
eat a piece of the roof, and you can eat the window. Will they not be
sweet?"

So Hansel reached up and broke a piece off the roof, in order to see how
it tasted; while Gretel stepped up to the window and began to bite it.
Then a sweet voice called out in the room, "Tip-tap, tip-tap, who raps
at my door?" and the children answered, "The wind, the wind, the child
of heaven;" and they went on eating.

Hansel thought the roof tasted very nice, a