Hansel and Gretel

Once upon a time there lived two children called Hansel and Gretel. They lived in a little cottage on the edge of the woods with their Father and Stepmother. One day Hansel overheard his Stepmother telling his father that the children must be left in the wood as they were too expensive to keep. Quick thinking Hansel quickly snuck out of the house and collected a pocketful of little white pebbles.
The next day the children we taken for a walk with their father.

The children's father led them along a winding path to a clearing in the woods.
Here he made them a fire and told them to wait while he went to collect some firewood. The children waited for ages, but their father didn't come back and eventually they fell asleep.
They woke up late in the evening cold and alone and Gretel began to cry.
Hansel told her about the stones he had dropped and how they could follow them home. They looked around and sure enough there were the stones, gleaming in the moonlight.
They children followed the stones through the woods, back to their home and the welcoming arms of their father.

The children's stepmother was furious that the children had returned and that night locked the children in their room so they couldn't collect stones again.
The next day they all set off into the woods again. This time the children didn't have stones to drop, but Hansel dropped little crumbs from the stale piece of bread his stepmother had given him to eat.
The children walked and walked for a very long time dropping crumbs as they went.

This time they arrived in a little clearing on the opposite side of the woods.
The children's father lit the fire and showed the children where there were lots of berries growing.
Again the children fell asleep and again they woke up in the dark to find their father had gone.
Hansel told Gretel about the trail of bread he had left, but unfortunately, when they looked it had disappeared, eaten by the birds and animals of the forest.
Now the children were cold and scared, they decided to try to find their way home.

Through the trees the children suddenly spied a little cottage in a clearing, lit up in the moonlight. They moved closer and gasped. The cottage wasn't a normal cottage at all, it looked to be entirely edible! On closer inspection, the walls were made of gingerbread, the Windows were melted boiled sweets and the door was made of biscuit! The children tiptoed nearer and as they were starving started to nibble little bits from the window sill!
Suddenly the door of the house flew open and a grumpy old woman limped out. Her hair was black as a raven and hung down her back, her teeth were crooked and brown and her chin and nose were hooked and pointed.
She grabbed the children by the scruff of the neck, threw Gretel inside the house and dragged Hansel to an outside cage.

The witch locked Hansel in the cage and every day made him eat lots of food cooked by his sister. Gretel was kept a prisoner inside the gingerbread house, made to sweep the floors and look after the house, while the witch fattened up Hansel to eat him for tea!
Luckily Hansel had a cunning plan and every day when the witch asked him to stick out his finger to see if he was fat enough, he stuck out a bone he found beside the cage. The witch being nearly blind, couldn't understand why Hansel wasn't getting fatter.
One day the witch lost her patience and asked Gretel to stoke the fire in the oven ready to cook him!
This was Gretels chance! She told the witch she thought that the oven was too small to fit her brother in and while the witch leant into the oven to prove her wrong, Gretel pushed her forwards and locked the witch in the oven!

Gretel raced to the cage to unlock her brother and they set off exploring.

In the orchard outside the witches cottage the children found a huge treasure chest full to the brim with all manner of jewels and gems and gold. The children grabbed hand fulls of the treasure and then carefully buried the rest of the treasure under a tree where they knew they would find it again. They returned to the witches cottage and filled a bag with sweets, biscuits and gingerbread for the journey and set off home to find their father.

After hours of wandering round and round in circles the children finally found their way back into a part of the woods that was familiar to them. As the trees grew less dense they suddenly spied the house they had been dreaming of seeing ...their home.
They were met at the door of the cottage by their father, who cried when he saw them. He told them that their stepmother had left and would never return.
The children showed their father the treasure, and they all lived happily ever after.