When they had reached the middle of the forest, the father said, “Now, children, pile up some wood, and I will light a fire that you may not be cold.”  Haensel and Grethel gathered brushwood together, as high as a little hill.  The brushwood was lighted, and when the flames were burning very high the woman said, “Now, children, lay yourselves down by the fire and rest and we will go into the forest and cut some wood.  When we have done, we will come back and fetch you away.”

Haensel and Grethel sat by the fire, and, when noon came, each ate a little piece of bread, but, as they heard the strokes of the wood-axe, they believed that their father was near.  It was, however, not the axe; it was a branch which he had fastened to a withered tree which the wind was blowing backward and forward; and, as they had been sitting such a long time, their eyes shut with fatigue and they fell fast asleep.  When at last they awoke it was already dark night.  Grethel began to cry and said, “How are we to get out of the forest now?” But Haensel comforted her and said, “Just wait a little, until the moon has risen, and then we will soon find the way.”  And when the full moon had risen, Haensel took his little sister by the hand and followed the pebbles, which shone like newly-coined silver pieces and showed them the way.

They walked the whole night long, and by break of day came once more to their father’s house.  They knocked at the door, and when the woman opened it and saw that it was Haensel and Grethel, she said, “You naughty children, why have you slept so long in the forest?  We thought you were never coming back at all!” The father, however, rejoiced, for it had cut him to the heart to leave them behind alone.

Not long afterward, there was once more great scarcity in all parts, and the children heard their mother saying at night to their father, “Everything is eaten again; we have one-half loaf left, and after that there is an end.  The children must go.  We will take them farther into the wood, so that they will not find their way out again; there is no other means of saving ourselves!” The man’s heart was heavy, and he thought, “It would be better for thee to share the last mouthful with thy children.”  The woman, however, would listen to nothing that he had to say, but scolded and reproached him.  He who says A must say B likewise, and, as he had yielded the first time, he had to do so a second time also.

The children were, however, still awake and had heard the conversation.  When the old folks were asleep, Haensel again got up, and wanted to go out and pick up pebbles; but the woman had locked the door, and Haensel could not get out.  Nevertheless he comforted his little sister, and said, “Do not cry, Grethel, go to sleep quietly.  The good God will help us.”