Excerpt from Hansel and Gretel: And Other Stories Nce upon a time there dwelt near a large wood a poor woodcutter with his wife and two children by his former marriage, a little boy called Hansel, and a girl named Gretel. He had little enough to break or bite; and once, when there was a great famine in the land, he could not procure even his daily bread; and as he lay thinking in his bed one evening, rolling about for trouble, he sighed, and said to his wife, What will become of us? How can we feed our children, when we have no more than we can eat ourselves?

Know then, my husband, answered she, we will lead them away, quite early in the morning, into the thickest part of the wood, and there make them a fire, and give them each a little piece of bread; then we will go to our work, and leave them alone, so they will not find the way home again, and we shall be freed from them. No, wife, replied he, that I can never do how can you bring your heart to leave my children all alone in the wood; for the wild beasts will soon come and tear them to pieces?

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