Kitabı oku: «Scary Fairy Tales. A1 / Страшные сказки», sayfa 6

Witches have red eyes and cannot see very far, but they have a sense of smell like animals, and know when humans are nearby.

When Hansel and Gretel came near to her, she thought, “Now I have them. They will not get away from me again.”

Early the next morning, before they awoke, she got up, went to their beds, and looked at the two of them lying there so peacefully, with their full red cheeks. “They will be a good dinner,” she spoke to herself. Then she grabbed Hansel and carried him to a littlestall, where she locked him behind a cage door. He cried as loudly as he could, but no one came to help him.

Then she shook Gretel and cried, “Get up! Bring water and cook something good for your brother. He is locked outside in the stall. When he will be fat enough, I am going to eat him.”

Gretel began to cry, but it did not help. She had to do what the witch wanted. Now Hansel was given the best things to eat every day, but Gretel received nothing but eggshells.

Every morning the old woman went out to the stall and shouted, “Hansel, stick out your finger, so I can feel if you are fat yet.”

But Hansel stuck out a little bone, and the old woman, who had bad eyesight and could not see the bone, thought it was Hansel's finger, and she wondered why he didn't get fat.

After four weeks Hansel was still thin, and she decided not to wait any longer. “Hey, Gretel!” she shouted to the girl, “Hurry up and bring some water. Whether Hansel is fat or thin, tomorrow I am going to kill him and boil him.”

Oh, how the poor little sister cried as she was forced to carry the water, and how the tears streamed down her cheeks! “Dear God, please help us,” she cried. “It would be better if we were torn apart by wild animals. Then we would have died together.”