Story 30: Hansel and Gretel Brothers' Grimm Year Published 1812 P2

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Early in the morning Gretel had to fill the kettle with water and light the fire.
"First we'll bake," said the old witch. "I've heated the oven and leaded the dough." And she drove poor Gretel out to the oven, which by now was spitting flames. "Crawl in," said the witch, «and see if it's hot enough for the bread." Once Gretel was inside, she meant to close the door and roast her, so as to eat her too. But Gretel saw what she had in mind and said: "I don't know how. How do I get in?" "Silly goose," said the old woman. "The opening is big enough. Look. Even I can get in." She crept to the opening and stuck her head in, whereupon Gretel gave her a push that sent her sprawling, closed the iron door and fastened the bolt. Eek! How horribly she screeched! But Gretel ran away and the wicked witch burned miserably to death.
Gretel ran straight to Hansel, opened the door of the shed, and cried: "Hansel, we're saved! The old witch is dead." Hansel hopped out like a bird when someone opens the door of its cage. How happy they were! They hugged and kissed each other and danced around.
And now that there was nothing to be afraid of, they went into the witch's house and in every corner there were boxes full of pearls and precious stones. Hansel stuffed his pockets full of them and said:
"These will be much better than pebbles," and Gretel said: "I'll take some home too," and filled her apron with them. "We'd better leave now," said Hansel,
"and get out of this bewitched forest." When
they had walked a few hours, they came to a big body of water.
"How will we ever get across?" said Hansel. "I don't see any bridge." "And there's no boat, either," said Gretel, "but over there I see a white duck. She'll help us across if I ask her." And she cried
out:
"Duckling, duckling, here is Gretel, Duckling, duckling, here is Hansel.
No bridge or ferry far and wide-Duckling, come and give us a ride."
Sure enough, the duck came over to them and Hansel sat down on her back and told his sister to sit beside him.
"No," said Gretel, "that would be too much for the poor thing; let her carry us one at a time." And that's just what the good little duck did. And when they were safely across and had walked a little while, the forest began to look more and more familiar, and finally they saw their father's house in the distance. They began to run, and they flew into the house and threw themselves into their father's arms. The poor man hadn't had a happy hour since he had left the children in the forest, and in the meantime his wife had died. Gretel opened out her little apron, the pearls and precious stones went bouncing around the room, and Hansel reached into his pockets and tossed out handful after handful. All their worries were over, and they lived together in pure happiness.
My story is done, see the mouse run; if you catch it, you may make yourself a great big fur cap out of it. (Fairytale English has version of this has a part where there is one more character involved that was transformed into a dove they reveal it is a Prince and that's why the witch's house has all those jewels the Prince had them on him when he got turned into a white dove and he gave them away to the children as a gift for setting him free. (I am not making both Hansel and Gretel have a daughter a son in Ever After High book. The children we have seen will be both Hansel's children and Gretel will start a new story altogether. As I think it is nice to give her a new story since barely does anything in her original story anyways.)

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