Not long afterward there was again great dearth in the land, and the children heard their mother address their father thus in bed one night:  “Everything is eaten up once more; we have only half a loaf in the house, and when that’s done it’s all up with us.  The children must be got rid of; we’ll lead them deeper into the wood this time, so that they won’t be able to find their way out again.  There is no other way of saving ourselves.”  The man’s heart smote him heavily, and he thought:  “Surely it would be better to share the last bite with one’s children!” But his wife wouldn’t listen to his arguments, and did nothing but scold and reproach him.  If a man yields once he’s done for, and so, because he had given in the first time, he was forced to do so the second.

But the children were awake, and had heard the conversation.  When the old people were asleep Hansel got up, and wanted to go out and pick up pebbles again, as he had done the first time; but the woman had barred the door, and Hansel couldn’t get out.  But he consoled his little sister, and said:  “Don’t cry, Grettel, and sleep peacefully, for God is sure to help us.”

At early dawn the woman came and made the children get up.  They received their bit of bread, but it was even smaller than the time before.  On the way to the wood Hansel crumbled it in his pocket, and every few minutes he stood still and dropped a crumb on the ground.  “Hansel, what are you stopping and looking about you for?” said the father.  “I’m looking back at my little pigeon, which is sitting on the roof waving me a farewell,” answered Hansel.  “Fool!” said the wife; “that isn’t your pigeon, it’s the morning sun glittering on the chimney.”  But Hansel gradually threw all his crumbs on the path.  The woman led the children still deeper into the forest farther than they had ever been in their lives before.  Then a big fire was lit again, and the mother said:  “Just sit down there, children, and if you’re tired you can sleep a bit; we’re going into the forest to cut down wood, and in the evening when we’re finished we’ll come back to fetch you.”  At midday Grettel divided her bread with Hansel, for he had strewn his all along their path.  Then they fell asleep, and evening passed away, but nobody came to the poor children.  They didn’t awake till it was pitch dark, and Hansel comforted his sister, saying:  “Only wait, Grettel, till the moon rises, then we shall see the bread-crumbs I scattered along the path; they will show us the way back to the house.”  When the moon appeared they got up, but they found no crumbs, for the thousands of birds that fly about the woods and fields had picked them all up.  “Never mind,” said Hansel to Grettel; “you’ll see we’ll find a way out”; but all the same they did not.  They wandered about the whole night, and the next day, from morning till evening, but they could not find a path out of the wood.  They were very hungry, too, for they had nothing to eat but a few berries they found growing on the ground.  And at last they were so tired that their legs refused to carry them any longer, so they lay down under a tree and fell fast asleep.