Tales of the German Imagination from the Brothers Grimm to Ingeborg Bachmann (Penguin Classics) Read Online Free

down beside the fire, children, and rest, we’re going into the forest to cut wood. When we’re done we’ll come back and get you.’
    Hansel and Gretel sat by the fire, and when midday came, each ate their little crust of bread. And because they heard the sound of the wood axe chopping, they thought their father was near. But it was not the axe, it was a branch he’d tied to a withered tree that the wind rattled back and forth. And as they’d sat there waiting a long while, their eyes grew heavy with fatigue and they fell fast asleep.
    When at last they woke up it was already the dead of night. Gretel started crying: ‘How will we ever find our way out of the woods!’
    But Hansel comforted her: ‘Just wait a while until the moon rises, we’ll find our way all right.’
    And when the full moon had risen, Hansel took his little sister by the hand and followed the white pebbles; they shimmered like newly minted coins and showed him the way. They walked the whole night and at daybreak got back to their father’s house.
    They knocked at the door. The woman opened it, saw that it was Hansel and Gretel and said: ‘You naughty children, why did you sleep so long in the woods; we thought you’d never come home.’ But the father, whose heart was heavy at having left them behind, was overjoyed to see his children again.
    Not long thereafter, things got bad again all over the land, and the children overheard their stepmother say to their father in bed at night: ‘We’re scraping the barrel again, all we have left is a half-loaf of bread, and then we’re done for. The children have to go. We’ll take them deeper into the forest this time so that they don’t find their way back; or else we’re doomed.’ The man felt bad, and thought: better I should share my last bite with my children. But the woman wouldn’t listen to anything he said, and kept on complaining and badgering him. One mistake leads to another, and because he had given in the first time he had to give in again.
    But the children were still awake and had overheard the conversation. As soon as the grown-ups were asleep, Hansel got up again and wanted to go out to gather pebbles as he had the last time, but the woman had locked the door and Hansel could not get out. Still he comforted his little sister and said: ‘Don’t cry, Gretel, and sleep tight, God will help us, you’ll see.’
    Early the next morning the woman came to drag the children out of bed. They each received a crust of bread that was even smaller than the last time. On the way into the woods, Hansel crumbled it in his pocket, often stopping to toss a crumb on the ground. ‘Hansel, why are standing there and looking around,’ said the father, ‘shake a leg.’
    ‘I’m looking after my little pigeon that’s perched on the rooftop and wants to wave goodbye,’ replied Hansel.
    ‘Fool,’ said the woman, ‘that’s no pigeon, that’s the morning sun shining on the chimney.’ But Hansel kept on dropping breadcrumbs along the way.
    The woman led the children deeper and deeper into the woods, where they’d never been before. Another big fire was lit, and the stepmother said: ‘Just sit here, children, and when you get tired you can take a little nap – we’re going into the forest to cut wood, and in the evening when we’re done we’ll come and get you.’
    At midday, Gretel shared her bread with Hansel, who had crumbled and scattered his share along the way. Then they fell asleep and darkness fell, but nobody came to pick up the poor children.
    They awakened in the dead of night and Hansel comforted his little sister and said: ‘Just wait, Gretel, till the moon rises, then we’ll see the breadcrumbs I scattered and they’ll show us the way home.’
    When the moon rose they set out, but they could not find any breadcrumbs, for the flocks of birds that circle woods and fields had eaten them up. They walked all night and another day from morning till evening, but they never made