But her husband felt heavy at heart, and thought, “It were better to share the last crust with the children.”  His wife, however, would listen to nothing that he said, and scolded and reproached him without end.

He who says A must say B too; and he who consents the first time must also the second.

The children, however, had heard the conversation as they lay awake, and as soon as their parents went to sleep Hansel got up, intending to pick up some pebbles as before; but the wife had locked the door, so that he could not get out.  Nevertheless he comforted Grethel, saying, “Do not weep; sleep in quiet; the good God will not forsake us.”

Early in the morning the stepmother came and pulled them out of bed, and gave them each a slice of bread, which was still smaller than the former piece.  On the way Hansel broke his in his pocket, and stopping every now and then, dropped a crumb upon the path.  “Hansel, why do you stop and look about?” said the father, “keep in the path.”  “I am looking at my little dove,” answered Hansel, “nodding a good-bye to me.”  “Simpleton!” said the wife, “that is no dove, but only the sun shining on the chimney.”  But Hansel kept still dropping crumbs as he went along.

The mother led the children deep into the wood, where they had never been before, and there making a gigantic fire, she said to them, “Sit down here and rest, and when you feel tired you can sleep for a little while.  We are going into the forest to hew wood, and in the evening, when we are ready, we will come and fetch you again.”

When noon came, Grethel shared her bread with Hansel, who had strewn his on the path.  They then went to sleep; but the evening arrived and no one came to visit the poor children, and in the dark night they awoke, and Hansel comforted his sister by saying, “Only wait, Grethel, till the moon comes out, then we shall see the crumbs of bread which I have dropped, and they will show us the way home.”  The moon shone and they got up, but they could not see any crumbs, for the thousands of birds which had been flying about in the woods and fields had picked them all up.  Hansel kept saying to Grethel, “We will soon find the way;” but they did not, and they walked the whole night long and the next day, but still they did not come out of the wood; and they got very hungry, for they had nothing to eat but the berries which they found upon the bushes.  Soon they were so tired that they could not drag themselves along, then they lay down under a tree and again went to sleep.

[Illustration:  Painted by Jennie Harbour Hansel and Grethel]

It was now the third morning since they had left their father’s house, and they still walked on; but they only got deeper, and deeper, and deeper into the wood, and Hansel felt that if help did not come very soon they must die of hunger.  As soon as it was noon they saw a beautiful, snow-white bird sitting upon a bough, singing so sweetly that they stood still and listened to it.  It soon ceased, and spreading its wings flew off; and they followed it until it arrived at a cottage, upon the roof of which it perched; and when they went close up to it they saw that the cottage was made of bread and cakes, and the window-panes were of clear sugar.