Kitabı oku: «Страшные сказки / Scary stories», sayfa 3
“Just wait, Gretel, until the moon rises, and then we shall see the crumbs of bread. They will show us our way home again”.
When the moon came they set out, but they found no crumbs, for the many thousands of birds which fly about in the woods and fields picked them all up. Hansel said to Gretel:
‘We shall soon find the way,’ but they did not find it.
They walked the whole night and all the next day too from morning till evening, but they did not get out of the forest. They were very hungry, for they had nothing to eat but two or three berries, which grew on the ground. And as they were so weary that their legs carried them no longer, they lay down beneath a tree and fell asleep.
They spent three mornings in the wood. They began to walk again, but they always came deeper into the forest. If help doesn’t come soon, they will die of hunger and weariness!
When it was midday, they saw a beautiful snow-white bird on a bough. The bird sang so delightfully that they stood still and listened to it. And when its song was over, it spread its wings and flew away before them. The children followed it until they reached a little house, on the roof of which it alighted. When they approached the little house they saw that it was built of bread and covered with cakes, but that the windows were of clear sugar.
“Wewill set to work on that5”, said Hansel, “and have a good meal. I will eat a bit of the roof, and you Gretel, can eat some of the window, it will taste sweet”.
Hansel reached up above, and broke off a little of the roof to try how it tasted. Gretel leant against the window and nibbled at the panes. Then a soft voice cried from the parlour:
‘Nibble, nibble, gnaw,
Who is at my little house?’
The children answered:
‘The wind, the wind,
The heaven-born wind,’
and continued to eat. Hansel, who liked the taste of the roof, tore down a great piece of it. Gretel pushed out the whole of one round window-pane, sat down, and enjoyed herself with it. Suddenly the door opened, and an old woman, who supported herself on crutches, came out. Hansel and Gretel were so terribly frightened that theylet fall6 what they had in their hands. The old woman, however, nodded her head, and said:
“Oh, you dear children, who brought you here? Come in, and stay with me. No harm will happen to you”.
She took them both by the hand, and led them into her little house. Then she gave them good food, milk and pancakes, with sugar, apples, and nuts. Afterwards she covered two pretty little beds with clean white linen for them. Hansel and Gretel lay down in them, and thought they were in heaven.
But the old woman only pretended to be so kind. She was actually a wicked witch, wholay in wait for7 children. She only built the little house of bread in order to entice them there. When a child fell into her power, she killed it, cooked and ate it, and that was a feast day with her. Witches have red eyes, and cannot see far, but they have a keen scent like the beasts, and are aware when human beings draw near.
When Hansel and Gretel came into her neighbourhood, she laughed with malice, and said mockingly:
