t, and will scratch out thy eyes as well.
Rapunzel is lost to thee; thou wilt never see her more." The King's
son was beside himself with pain, and in his despair leapt down from
the tower. He escaped with his life, but the thorns into which he fell
pierced his eyes. Then he wandered quite blind about the forest, ate
nothing but roots and berries, and did nothing but lament and weep
over the loss of his dearest wife. Thus he roamed about in misery for
some years, and at length came to the desert where Rapunzel, with
the twins to which she had given birth, a boy and a girl, lived in
wretchedness. He heard a voice, and it seemed so familiar to him that
he went toward it, and, when he approached, Rapunzel knew him and fell
on his neck and wept. Two of her tears wetted his eyes and they grew
clear again so that he could see with them as before. He led her to
his kingdom where he was joyfully received, and they lived for a long
time afterward, happy and contented.

* * * * *

HAENSEL AND GRETHEL

Hard by a great forest dwelt a poor wood-cutter with his wife and his
two children. The boy was called Haensel and the girl Grethel. He had
little to bite and to break, and once, when great scarcity fell on the
land, he could no longer procure daily bread. Now when he thought over
this by night in his bed, and tossed about in his anxiety, he groaned
and said to his wife, "What is to become of us? How are we to feed
our poor children when we no longer have anything even for ourselves?"
"I'll tell you what, husband," answered the woman, "early tomorrow
morning we will take the children out into the forest to where it is
the thickest, and there we will light a fire for them, and give each
of them one piece of bread more; then we will go to our work and leave
them alone. They will not find the way home again, and we shall be
rid of them." "No, wife," said the man, "I will not do that; how can I
bear to leave my children alone in the forest? The wild animals would
soon come and tear them to pieces." "O, thou fool!" said she, "then we
must all four die of hunger and thou mayest as well plane the planks
for our coffins;" and she left him no peace until he consented. "But I
feel very sorry for the poor children, all the same," said the man.

[Illustration: HAeNSEL AND GRETHEL Ludwig Richter]

The two children had also not been able to sleep for hunger, and had
heard what their step-mother had said