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I . The House by the Forest Long ago , a poor woodcutter lived near a great forest with his wife and his two children . The boy was called Hansel , and the girl was called Gretel . The woodcutter’s wife was not the children’s real mother . She was their stepmother . The family lived in a small wooden house at the edge of the trees . Every day the father went into the forest with his axe . He cut down trees , and then he sold the wood in the village . But he earned very little money for all his hard work . There was almost never any meat on the table . On many evenings the family ate only a little bread for supper . Then one year a very bad time came to the whole land . Almost nothing grew in the fields , and people everywhere were hungry . Nobody had money to buy wood any more . Soon the woodcutter could not even buy bread for his family . One night the children went to bed without any supper . “ I’m so hungry , Hansel , ” Gretel whispered in the dark . “ Me too , ” her brother answered . “ Try to sleep . When you’re asleep , you don’t feel hungry . ” But neither of them could sleep . Their father was not sleeping either . He was lying in bed and thinking about his children , and he was full of worry . He turned over and over in his bed . At last he sighed and spoke to his wife . “ What’s going to happen to us ? ” he asked . “ How can we feed our poor children ? We don’t even have enough for ourselves . ” “ Listen , husband , ” the woman answered . “ Early tomorrow morning we’ll take the children into the forest , to the place where the trees are thickest . We’ll light a fire there and give each of them one last piece of bread . Then we’ll go to our work and leave them alone . They won’t find the way home again , and we’ll have two fewer mouths to feed . ” “ No , wife , ” said the man . “ I won’t do that . How can I leave my children alone in the forest ? The wild animals will soon come and tear them to pieces . ” “ Oh , you fool ! ” she said . “ Then all four of us will die of hunger . You can start making the wooden boxes for our graves right now . ” The woman talked and talked . She gave him no peace until at last he said yes . “ But I feel very sorry for my poor children , ” the man said sadly . The two children heard every word , because hunger was keeping them awake . Gretel cried bitter tears . “ Now it’s all over for us , ” she said to her brother . “ Be quiet , Gretel , ” said Hansel . “ Don’t be sad . I’ll soon find a way to help us . ” When the grown - ups were asleep , Hansel got up very quietly . He put on his little coat , opened the door and crept outside . The moon was shining brightly that night . In front of the house there were lots of white pebbles . Pebbles are small , round stones . In the moonlight they were shining like real silver coins . Hansel bent down and filled his coat pocket with as many pebbles as it could hold . Then he went back inside to his sister’s bed . “ Don’t worry , little sister , ” he said . “ Sleep well . God won’t leave us alone . ” And he lay down in his own bed again .
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