The next morning, before the sun arose, the wife went and awoke the two children.  “Get up, you lazy things; we are going into the forest to chop wood.”  Then she gave them each a piece of bread, saying, “There is something for your dinner; do not eat it before the time, for you will get nothing else.”  Grethel took the bread in her apron, for Hansel’s pocket was full of pebbles; and so they all set out upon their way.  When they had gone a little distance, Hansel stood still, and peeped back at the house; and this he repeated several times, till his father said, “Hansel, what are you looking at, and why do you lag behind?  Take care, and remember your legs.”

“Ah, father,” said Hansel, “I am looking at my white cat sitting upon the roof of the house, and trying to say good-bye.”

“You simpleton!” said the wife, “that is not a cat; it is only the sun shining on the white chimney.”  But in reality Hansel was not looking at a cat; but every time he stopped, he dropped a pebble out of his pocket upon the path.

When they came to the middle of the forest, the father told the children to collect wood, and he would make them a fire, so that they should not be cold.  So Hansel and Grethel gathered together quite a little mount of twigs.  Then they set fire to them; and as the flame burnt up high, the wife said, “Now, you children, lie down near the fire, and rest yourselves, whilst we go into the forest and chop more wood; when we are ready we will come and call you.”

Hansel and Grethel sat down by the fire, and when it was noon, each ate the piece of bread; and because they could hear the blows of an axe they thought their father was near; but it was not an axe, but a branch which he had bound to an old tree, so as to be blown to and fro by the wind.  They waited so long, that at last their eyes closed from weariness, and they fell fast asleep.  When they awoke, it was quite dark, and Grethel began to cry.  “How shall we get out of the wood?” But Hansel tried to comfort her by saying, “Wait a little while till the moon rises, and then we will quickly find the way.”  The moon shone forth, and Hansel, taking his sister’s hand, followed the pebbles, which glittered like new-coined silver pieces, and showed them the way.  All night long they walked on, and as day broke they came to their father’s house.  They knocked at the door, and when the wife opened it, and saw Hansel and Grethel, she exclaimed, “You wicked children!  Why did you sleep so long in the wood?  We thought you were never coming home again.”  But their father was extremely glad, for it had grieved his heart to leave them all alone.

[Illustration:  “Hansel and Grethel sat down by the fire.”]

Not long afterwards there was again great scarcity in every corner of the land; and one night the children overheard their mother saying to their father, “Everything is once more consumed; we have only half a loaf left, and then the song is ended:  the children must be sent away.  We will take them deeper into the wood, so that they may not find the way out again; it is the only means of escape for us.”