Welcome to Little Cozy Nook.
Once upon a time, near a deep, dark forest, there lived a poor woodcutter with his wife
and two children.
The boy was named Hansel, and the girl was named Gretel.
The family never had very much to eat, and now, when times were hard, people around the
land were starving, and the poor woodcutter could not get enough food to feed his family.
As he lay in bed one night, tossing and turning with worry, he turned to his wife and said,
“What is going to happen to us?
How can we feed our poor children when we haven’t got enough for ourselves?”
“Listen to me,” said his wife.
“Early tomorrow morning,” the coldhearted woman said, “we’ll take the children
deep into the woods.
We’ll give each of them a piece of bread, and make a fire.
Then we’ll leave them and go about our work.
They won’t find the way home in time for dinner, and we will eat their share.”
“No!” said the man.
“I cannot do that.
I cannot leave my children alone in the woods, where there are wild animals.
It will get dark and cold as the sun sets.”
“Then you are a fool,” snapped the woman.
“You might as well accept it that we will all starve.”
Then she nagged the poor man, and scolded him, and kept at him until at last, he agreed.
“But I feel sorry for my poor children,” he said quietly.
The two children were so hungry that they had not been able to sleep, and so they heard
everything their stepmother said to their father.
Gretel cried, but Hansel whispered, “Don’t worry, I will think of something.”
And when their parents had gone to sleep, Hansel got up, put on his little coat, and
sneaked outside.
The moon was shining brightly, and the white pebbles that lay in front of the house glittered
like silver coins.
Hansel stooped and filled the pocket of his coat with as many pebbles as it would hold.
Then he tiptoed back to bed and said to Gretel, “Go to sleep, little sister.”
At daybreak the woman came and woke the two children.
“Get up, you lazybones!
We’re going to the forest to get some wood.”
She gave them each a piece of bread and said, “That’s your food for the day.
Don’t eat it all at once, because it is all you are going to get.
We will have supper after we return from the woods.
That is, if you are home in time.”
Gretel carried both pieces of bread in her apron, for Hansel’s pockets were full of
pebbles.
They all started out on their way to the forest.
As they walked, Hansel kept turning and looking back at the house, again and again.
His father said, “Hansel, what are you looking at?
You must watch where you’re going.”
“Oh,” said Hansel, “I’m just looking at my little white kitten, sitting on the
roof of the house to say good-bye.” 8 The wife said, “You little fool, that’s not
your kitten.
That’s just the sun shining on the chimney.
Now, come along!”
But Hansel stayed a few steps behind, and kept turning, and each time he turned he dropped
a pebble from his pocket to mark the way.
When they were deep in the forest, the father said, “Gather some firewood, children.
I’ll start a fire so you won’t get cold while we work.”
Hansel and Gretel gathered a little mountain of twigs and sticks, and when the fire was
burning, the wife said, “Stay by the fire, you two.
We have to go and cut wood.
When we’re finished, we’ll come back to get you.”
So Hansel and Gretel sat by the fire.
After a time, they ate their bread.
And after a longer time, they got so tired that they closed their eyes and fell asleep.
When they woke, it was dark, and they were all alone.
Gretel began to cry, but Hansel comforted her.
“Wait a little until the moon rises,” he said.
Why do you think Hansel gathered pebbles?
When the full moon had risen, Hansel took his little sister by the hand and followed
the pebbles, which glittered like silver coins and showed them the way.
They walked on through the night, and at last, at the break of day, they came to their father’s
house.
They knocked on the door, and when the woman opened it she was shocked.
But all she said was, “Why, there you are!
Why did you stay so long in the forest?
We thought you were never coming home again.”
Of course their father was glad to see them, for it had broken his heart to leave them
alone.
Not very long afterward, times were hard again, and there was little food to eat.
Again the children heard their stepmother say to their father one night, “There’s
nothing left but a half loaf of bread.
After that, we’re done!
We don’t have enough food for ourselves and the children.
This time we’ll take them so deep in the forest that they won’t find their way back
for a week!”
“But, wife,” said the man, with a heavy heart, “it would be better to share our
last bite of food with the children.”
But the wife would not listen to him.
And, she knew if she kept at him, she could get him to give in and agree with her plan
as he did before.
Much later, when their parents were asleep, Hansel got up to collect pebbles just as he
did before.
But he couldn’t get out—his stepmother had figured out how they found their way home
last time and had locked the door!
So Hansel got back in bed and tried to think of a different plan.
Early the next morning the woman roused the children out of bed.
She gave them a piece of bread, even smaller than before.
As they walked into the woods, Hansel broke up the bread in his pocket, and every once
in a while he stopped to throw a crumb on the ground.
“Hansel,” said his father, “what do you keep stopping and looking back for?”
“I’m looking at a little pigeon that’s sitting on the roof and wants to say goodbye
to me,” answered Hansel.
“Little fool,” said the wife, “that’s not a pigeon.
It’s only the sun shining on the chimney.”
So they walked on, and Hansel dropped bread crumbs all along the way.
The woman led the children deeper into the forest than they had ever been in all their
lives.
Again, they gathered sticks for a fire, and the woman said, “Sit there, children, and
when you are tired, go to sleep.
We’re going to cut wood, and when we’re finished we’ll come get you.”
Later, when it was lunchtime, Gretel shared her small piece of bread with Hansel, because
he had left his in crumbs along the path.
Then they fell asleep.
As evening came, no one came to get them.
When they woke it was dark, and they were alone.
When the moon rose, they started for home, but they could not find the bread crumbs.
The birds had eaten them up.
“Come, Gretel,” said Hansel, “I know we can find our way.”
But they couldn’t find it.
They went on all night, and the next day from morning until evening, but they could not
find their way out of the forest.
They were terribly hungry, for they had nothing to eat but a few berries.
When they were so tired that they could drag themselves no farther, they lay down under
a tree and fell asleep.