ldren. When once they were in her power, she would feed them well
till they got fat, and then kill them and cook them for her dinner; and
this she called her feast-day. Fortunately the witch had weak eyes, and
could not see very well; but she had a very keen scent, as wild animals
have, and could easily discover when human beings were near. As Hansel
and Grethel had approached her cottage, she laughed to herself
maliciously, and said, with a sneer: "I have them now; they shall not
escape from me again!"

Early in the morning, before the children were awake, she was up,
standing by their beds; and when she saw how beautiful they looked in
their sleep, with their round rosy cheeks, she muttered to herself,
"What nice tit-bits they will be!" Then she laid hold of Hansel with her
rough hand, dragged him out of bed, and led him to a little cage which
had a lattice-door, and shut him in; he might scream as much as he
would, but it was all useless.

After this she went back to Grethel, and, shaking her roughly till she
woke, cried: "Get up, you lazy hussy, and draw some water, that I may
boil something good for your brother, who is shut up in a cage outside
till he gets fat; and then I shall cook him and eat him!" When Grethel
heard this she began to cry bitterly; but it was all useless, she was
obliged to do as the wicked witch told her.

For poor Hansel's breakfast the best of everything was cooked; but
Grethel had nothing for herself but a crab's claw. Every morning the old
woman would go out to the little cage, and say: "Hansel, stick out your
finger, that I may feel if you are fat enough for eating." But Hansel,
who knew how dim her old eyes were, always stuck a bone through the bars
of his cage, which she thought was his finger, for she could not see;
and when she felt how thin it was, she wondered very much why he did not
get fat.

However, as the weeks went on, and Hansel seemed not to get any fatter,
she became impatient, and said she could not wait any longer. "Go,
Grethel," she cried to the maiden, "be quick and draw water; Hansel may
be fat or lean, I don't care, to-morrow morning I mean to kill him, and
cook him!"

Oh! how the poor little sister grieved when she was forced to draw the
water; and, as the tears rolled down her cheeks, she exclaimed: "It
would have been better to be eaten by wild beasts, or to have been
starved to death in the woods; then we should have died together!"

"Stop your crying!" cri