good food was set before them, milk and pancakes, with sugar, apples,
and nuts. Afterwards two pretty little beds were covered with clean
white linen, and Hansel and Grethel lay down in them, and thought they
were in heaven.

The old woman had only pretended to be so kind; she was in reality a
wicked witch, who lay in wait for children, and had built the little
bread house in order to coax them there.

Early in the morning, before the children were awake, she was already
up, and when she saw both of them sleeping and looking so pretty, with
their plump red cheeks, she muttered to herself, "That will be a dainty
mouthful!"

Then she seized Hansel, carried him into a little stable, and shut him
in behind a grated door. He might scream as he liked,--it was of no use.
Then she went to Grethel, shook her till she awoke and cried: "Get up,
lazy thing; fetch some water, and cook something good for your brother;
he is in the stable outside, and is to be made fat. When he is fat, I
will eat him."

Grethel began to weep, but it was all in vain; she was forced to do what
the wicked witch told her.

And now the best food was cooked for poor Hansel, but Grethel got
nothing but crab-shells.

Every morning the woman crept to the little stable, and cried, "Hansel,
stretch out your finger that I may feel if you will soon be fat."

Hansel, however, stretched out a little bone to her, and the old woman,
who had dim eyes, could not see it; she thought it was Hansel's finger,
and wondered why he grew no fatter. When four weeks had gone by, and
Hansel still was thin, she could wait no longer.

"Come, Grethel," she cried to the girl, "fly round and bring some water.
Let Hansel be fat or lean, to-morrow I will kill him, and cook him."

Ah, how sad was the poor little sister when she had to fetch the water,
and how her tears did flow down over her cheeks!

"Dear God, do help us," she cried. "If the wild beasts in the forest had
but eaten us, we should at any rate have died together."

"Just keep your noise to yourself," said the old woman; "all that won't
help you at all."

Early in the morning, Grethel had to go out and hang up the kettle with
the water, and light the fire.

"We will bake first," said the old woman. "I have already heated the
oven, and got the dough ready."

She pushed poor Grethel out to the oven, from which the flames of fire
were already darting.

"Creep in," said the witch, "and see if it is heated, so