When they had reached the entrance to the dark, thick wood, the two
ruffians took them out of the coach, telling them they might now walk a
little way and gather flowers; and, while the children were skipping
about like lambs, the ruffians turned their backs on them, and began to
consult about what they had to do.

"In good truth," says the one who had been sitting all the way between
the children, "now I have seen their cherub faces, and heard their
pretty speech, I have no heart to do the bloody deed; let us fling away
the ugly knife, and send the children back to their uncle."

"That I will not," says the other; "what boots their pretty speech to
us? And who will pay us for being so chicken-hearted?"

At last the ruffians fell into so great a passion about butchering the
innocent little creatures, that he who wished to spare their lives
suddenly opened the great knife he had brought to kill them, and stabbed
the other to the heart, so that he fell down dead.

The one who had killed him was now greatly at a loss what to do with the
children, for he wanted to get away as fast as he could, for fear of
being found in the wood. He was not, however, long in determining that
he must leave them in the wood, to the chance of some traveller passing
by. "Look ye, my pretty ones," said he, "you must each take hold and
come along with me." The poor children each took a hand and went on, the
tears bursting from their eyes, and their little limbs trembling with
fear.

Thus did he lead them about two miles further on in the wood, and told
them to wait there till he came back with some cakes.

William took his sister Jane by the hand, and they wandered fearfully up
and down the wood. "Will the strange man come with some cakes, Billy?"
says Jane.

"Presently, dear Jane," says William.

And soon again, "I wish I had some cakes, Billy," said she.

And it would have melted a heart of stone to see how sorrowfully they
looked.

After waiting very long, they tried to satisfy their hunger with
blackberries, but they soon devoured all that were within their reach;
and night coming on, William, who had tried all he could to comfort his
little sister, now wanted comfort himself; so when Jane said once more,
"How hungry I am, Billy, I b-e-l-i-e-v-e I cannot help crying," William
burst out crying too; and down they lay upon the cold earth, and putting
their arms round each other's neck, there they starved, and there they
died.

Th