Charles Perrault - The Gingerbread House: A Fairy Tale. Brothers Grimm "Gingerbread House"
Once upon a time, there lived a brother and sister, Jean and Marie. Their parents were very poor, and they lived in an old house on the edge of the forest. The children worked from morning to night, helping their father, the woodcutter. Often they returned home so tired that they did not even have the strength to eat dinner. However, it often happened that they had no dinner at all, and the whole family went to bed hungry.
“Marie,” Jean sometimes said, when, hungry, they lay in dark room and couldn’t sleep - I really wanted chocolate gingerbread.
“Sleep, Jean,” answered Marie, who was older and smarter than her brother.
– Oh, how I want to eat a big chocolate gingerbread with raisins! – Jean sighed loudly.
But chocolate gingerbread with raisins did not grow on trees, and Marie and Jean's parents did not have the money to go to the city and buy them for their children. Only Sundays were joyful for children. Then Jean and Marie took baskets and went into the forest to pick mushrooms and berries.
“Don’t go too far,” my mother always reminded me.
“Nothing will happen to them,” her father reassured her. “Every tree in the forest is familiar to them.”
One Sunday, the children, while picking mushrooms and berries, were so carried away that they did not notice how evening had come.
The sun quickly disappeared behind dark clouds, and the branches of the fir trees rustled ominously. Marie and Jean looked around in fear. The forest no longer seemed so familiar to them.
“I’m scared, Marie,” Jean said in a whisper.
“Me too,” Marie answered. - It seems we are lost.
Large, unfamiliar trees looked like silent giants with broad shoulders. Here and there in the thicket, lights sparkled - someone’s predatory eyes.
“Marie, I’m afraid,” Jean whispered again.
It became completely dark. The children, shivering from the cold, huddled together. Somewhere nearby an owl hooted, and from afar came the howl of a hungry wolf.
Scary night lasted forever. The children, listening to the ominous voices, never slept a wink. Finally, the sun flashed between the thick crowns of trees, and gradually the forest ceased to seem gloomy and scary. Jean and Marie got up and went to look for their way home.
They walked and walked through unfamiliar places. Huge mushrooms grew all around, much larger than those they usually collected. And in general everything was somehow unusual and strange.
When the sun was already high, Marie and Jean came out into a clearing in the middle of which stood a house. Unusual house. Its roof was made of chocolate gingerbread, its walls were made of pink marzipan, and its fence was made of large almonds. There was a garden around it, and colorful candies grew in it, and large raisins hung on small trees. Jean couldn't believe his own eyes. He looked at Marie, swallowing his saliva.
- Gingerbread house! – he exclaimed joyfully.
- Garden of candy! – Marie echoed him.
Without wasting a minute, the hungry children rushed to the wonderful house. Jean broke off a piece of gingerbread from the roof and began to eat it. Marie went into the kindergarten and began to feast on marzipan carrots, almonds from the fence, and raisins from the tree.
– What a delicious roof! – Jean was happy.
“Try a piece of the fence, Jean,” Marie suggested to him.
When the children had eaten their fill of unusual delicacies, they became thirsty. Fortunately, in the middle of the garden there was a fountain in which the water gurgled, shimmering with all the colors. Jean took a sip from the fountain and exclaimed in surprise:
- Yes, this is lemonade!
The delighted children greedily drank lemonade, when suddenly a hunched old woman appeared from around the corner of the gingerbread house. She had a stick in her hand, and very thick glasses sat on her nose.
– Delicious house, isn’t it, kids? – she asked.
The children were silent. Frightened Marie stammered:
- We... we got lost in the forest... we were so hungry...
The old lady didn't seem angry at all.
- Don't be afraid, guys. Enter the house. I will give you tastier delicacies than these.
As soon as the door of the house slammed behind Marie and Jean, the old woman changed beyond recognition. From being kind and friendly, she turned into an evil witch.
- So you got caught! – she wheezed, shaking her stick. – Is it good to have someone else’s house? You will pay me for this!
The children trembled and clung to each other in fear.
-What will you do to us for this? Perhaps you will tell our parents everything? – Marie asked in fear.
The witch laughed.
- Well, not that! I like children very much. Very!
And before Marie came to her senses, the witch grabbed Jean, pushed him into a dark closet and closed the heavy oak door behind him.
- Marie! – the boy’s exclamations were heard. - I'm scared!
- Sit quietly, you scoundrel! – the witch shouted. “You ate my house, now I’ll eat you!” But first I need to fatten you up a little, otherwise you are too thin.
Jean and Marie cried loudly. Now they were ready to give all the gingerbread in the world to again find themselves in a poor but dear house. But home and parents were far away, and no one could come to their aid.
Then the evil mistress of the gingerbread house approached the closet.
“Hey, boy, put your finger through the crack in the door,” she ordered.
Jean obediently stuck his thinnest finger through the crack. The witch touched him and said displeasedly:
- Just bones. It’s okay, in a week I’ll have you plump and plump.
And the witch began to feed Jean intensively. Every day she cooked for him delicious dishes, brought armfuls of marzipan, chocolate and honey treats from the kindergarten. And in the evening she ordered him to stick his finger into the crack and felt it.
- My dear, you are getting fat right before our eyes.
And indeed, Jean quickly gained weight. But one day Marie came up with this.
“Jean, next time, show her this wand,” she said and stuck a thin wand into the closet.
In the evening, the witch, as usual, turned to Jean:
- Well, show me your finger, my sweetie.
Jean stuck out the wand that his sister gave him. The old woman touched it and jumped back as if scalded:
- Again, just bones! I’m not feeding you, you parasite, so that you’ll be as thin as a stick!
The next day, when Jean stuck his wand in again, the witch became seriously angry.
“You can’t still be that skinny!” Show me your finger again.
And Jean stuck his wand in again. The old woman touched it and suddenly pulled it with all her might. The wand remained in her hand.
- What is this? – she shouted in rage. - Stick! Oh, you wicked deceiver! Well, now your song is over!
She opened the closet and pulled out the frightened Jean, who had grown fat and became like a barrel.
“Well, my dear,” the old woman gloated. “I see that you’ll make a great roast!”
The children were numb with horror. And the witch lit the stove, and a minute later it was already on fire. She was so hot.
– Do you see this apple? - asked the old woman Jean. She took the ripe one from the table juicy apple and threw it into the oven. The apple hissed in the fire, shriveled, and then disappeared completely. - The same will happen to you!
The witch grabbed a large wooden shovel, on which bread is usually placed in the oven, placed plump Jean on it and thrust it into it. However, the boy became so fat that he could not fit into the stove, no matter how the witch tried to push him there.
- Well, get down! - the old woman ordered. - Let's try differently. Lie down on the shovel.
“But I don’t know how to lie down,” Jean whined.
- What a fool! - the witch muttered. - I'll show you!
And she lay down on the shovel. That's all Marie needed. At that very moment she grabbed a shovel and shoved the witch straight into the oven. Then she quickly closed the iron door and, grabbing her frightened brother by the hand, shouted:
- Let's run, quickly!
The children ran out of the gingerbread house and rushed without looking back towards the dark forest.
Without making out the road, they ran through the forest for a long time and slowed down only when the first stars appeared in the sky and the forest gradually began to thin out.
Suddenly, in the distance, they noticed a faint flickering light.
- This is our house! - shouted the out of breath Jean.
Indeed, it was their old, rickety house. Concerned parents stood on his threshold and peered into the darkness with anxiety and hope.
How happy they were when they saw the children running towards them - Marie and Jean!
And no one else heard about the evil witch who lived in the deep forest. She probably burned in her stove, and her fairy-tale house fell apart into thousands of gingerbread and marzipan crumbs, which were eaten forest birds.
Once upon a time there lived a brother and sister, Jean and Marie. Their parents were very poor, and they lived in an old house on the edge of the forest. The children worked from morning to night, helping their father, the woodcutter. Often they returned home so tired that they did not even have the strength to eat dinner. However, it often happened that they had no dinner at all, and the whole family went to bed hungry.
“Marie,” Jean sometimes said, when, hungry, they lay in a dark room and could not sleep, “I really want chocolate gingerbread.”
“Sleep, Jean,” answered Marie, who was older and smarter than her brother.
- Oh, how I want to eat a big chocolate gingerbread with raisins! - Jean sighed loudly.
But chocolate gingerbread with raisins did not grow on trees, and Marie and Jean's parents did not have the money to go to the city and buy them for their children. Only Sundays were joyful for children. Then Jean and Marie took baskets and went into the forest to pick mushrooms and berries.
“Don’t go far,” mother always reminded.
“Nothing will happen to them,” her father reassured her. “Every tree in the forest is familiar to them.”
One Sunday, the children, while picking mushrooms and berries, were so carried away that they did not notice how evening had come.
The sun quickly disappeared behind dark clouds, and the branches of the fir trees rustled ominously. Marie and Jean looked around in fear. The forest no longer seemed so familiar to them.
“I’m scared, Marie,” Jean said in a whisper.
“Me too,” Marie answered. - It seems we are lost.
Large, unfamiliar trees looked like silent giants with broad shoulders. Here and there in the thicket, lights sparkled—someone’s predatory eyes.
“Marie, I’m afraid,” Jean whispered again.
It became completely dark. The children, shivering from the cold, huddled together. Somewhere nearby an owl hooted, and from afar came the howl of a hungry wolf.
The terrible night lasted endlessly. The children, listening to the ominous voices, never slept a wink. Finally, the sun flashed between the thick crowns of trees, and gradually the forest ceased to seem gloomy and scary. Jean and Marie got up and went to look for their way home.
They walked and walked through unfamiliar places. Huge mushrooms grew all around, much larger than those they usually collected. And in general everything was somehow unusual and strange.
When the sun was already high, Marie and Jean came out into a clearing in the middle of which stood a house. Unusual house. Its roof was made of chocolate gingerbread, its walls were made of pink marzipan, and its fence was made of large almonds. There was a garden around it, and colorful candies grew in it, and large raisins hung on small trees. Jean couldn't believe his own eyes. He looked at Marie, swallowing his saliva.
- Gingerbread house! - he exclaimed joyfully.
- Garden of candy! - Marie echoed him.
Without wasting a minute, the hungry children rushed to the wonderful house. Jean broke off a piece of gingerbread from the roof and began to eat it. Marie went into the kindergarten and began to feast on marzipan carrots, almonds from the fence, and raisins from the tree.
- What a delicious roof! - Jean was happy.
“Try a piece of the fence, Jean,” Marie suggested to him.
When the children had eaten their fill of unusual delicacies, they became thirsty. Fortunately, in the middle of the garden there was a fountain in which the water gurgled, shimmering with all the colors. Jean took a sip from the fountain and exclaimed in surprise:
- Yes, this is lemonade!
The delighted children greedily drank lemonade, when suddenly a hunched old woman appeared from around the corner of the gingerbread house. She had a stick in her hand, and very thick glasses sat on her nose.
— Delicious house, isn’t it, kids? she asked.
The children were silent. Frightened Marie stammered:
- We... we were lost in the forest... we were so hungry...
The old lady didn't seem angry at all.
- Don't be afraid, guys. Enter the house. I will give you tastier delicacies than these.
As soon as the door of the house slammed behind Marie and Jean, the old woman changed beyond recognition. From being kind and friendly, she turned into an evil witch.
- So you got caught! - she croaked, shaking her stick. - Is it good to have someone else’s house? You will pay me for this!
The children trembled and clung to each other in fear.
- What will you do to us for this? Perhaps you will tell our parents everything? - Marie asked in fear.
The witch laughed.
- Well, not that! I like children very much. Very!
And before Marie came to her senses, the witch grabbed Jean, pushed him into a dark closet and closed the heavy oak door behind him.
- Marie! - the boy's exclamations were heard. - I'm scared!
- Sit quietly, you scoundrel! - the witch shouted. “You ate my house, now I’ll eat you!” But first I need to fatten you up a little, otherwise you are too thin.
Jean and Marie cried loudly. Now they were ready to give all the gingerbread in the world to again find themselves in a poor but dear house. But home and parents were far away, and no one could come to their aid.
Then the evil mistress of the gingerbread house approached the closet.
“Hey, boy, put your finger through the crack in the door,” she ordered.
Jean obediently stuck his thinnest finger through the crack. The witch touched him and said displeasedly:
- Just bones. It’s okay, in a week I’ll have you plump and plump.
And the witch began to feed Jean intensively. Every day she prepared delicious dishes for him, bringing armfuls of marzipan, chocolate and honey treats from the kindergarten. And in the evening she ordered him to stick his finger into the crack and felt it.
- My dear, you are getting fat right before our eyes.
And indeed, Jean quickly gained weight. But one day Marie came up with this.
“Jean, next time, show her this wand,” she said and stuck a thin wand into the closet.
In the evening, the witch, as usual, turned to Jean:
- Well, show me your finger, my sweetie.
Jean stuck out the wand that his sister gave him. The old woman touched it and jumped back as if scalded:
- Just bones again! I’m not feeding you, you parasite, so that you’ll be as thin as a stick!
The next day, when Jean stuck his wand in again, the witch became seriously angry.
“You can’t still be that skinny!” Show me your finger again.
And Jean stuck his wand in again. The old woman touched it and suddenly pulled it with all her might. The wand remained in her hand.
- What is this? - she shouted in rage. - Stick! Oh, you wicked deceiver! Well, now your song is over!
She opened the closet and pulled out the frightened Jean, who had grown fat and became like a barrel.
“Well, my dear,” the old woman gloated. - I see that you will make a great roast!
The children were numb with horror. And the witch lit the stove, and a minute later it was already on fire. She was so hot.
- Do you see this apple? - asked the old woman Jean. She took a ripe, juicy apple from the table and threw it into the oven. The apple hissed in the fire, shriveled, and then disappeared completely. - The same will happen to you!
The witch grabbed a large wooden shovel, on which bread is usually placed in the oven, placed plump Jean on it and thrust it into it. However, the boy became so fat that he could not fit into the stove, no matter how the witch tried to push him there.
- Well, get down! - ordered the old woman. - Let's try differently. Lie down on the shovel.
“But I don’t know how to lie down,” Jean whined.
- What a fool! - the witch muttered. - I'll show you!
And she lay down on the shovel. That's all Marie needed. At that very moment she grabbed a shovel and shoved the witch straight into the oven. Then she quickly closed the iron door and, grabbing her frightened brother by the hand, shouted:
- Let's run, quickly!
The children ran out of the gingerbread house and rushed without looking back towards the dark forest.
Without making out the road, they ran through the forest for a long time and slowed down only when the first stars appeared in the sky and the forest gradually began to thin out.
Suddenly, in the distance, they noticed a faint flickering light.
- This is our house! - shouted the out of breath Jean.
Indeed, it was their old, rickety house. Concerned parents stood on his threshold and peered into the darkness with anxiety and hope.
How happy they were when they saw the children running towards them - Marie and Jean!
And no one else heard about the evil witch who lived in the deep forest. She probably burned in her stove, and her fairy-tale house fell apart into thousands of gingerbread and marzipan crumbs, which were eaten by forest birds.
A fairy tale about the children of a poor woodcutter - Jean and Marie. Their parents worked until exhaustion to feed the family, but there was no money. The kids dreamed about chocolate gingerbread and candies at night. One day the children went into the forest to pick mushrooms, got lost and stumbled upon Gingerbread house. The garden around the house was full of sweets, the roof was made of marzipan. But then the owner of this miracle returned - the evil witch...
Gingerbread house read
Once upon a time there lived a brother and sister, Jean and Marie. Their parents were very poor, and they lived in an old house on the edge of the forest. The children worked from morning to night, helping their father, the woodcutter. Often they returned home so tired that they did not even have the strength to eat dinner. However, it often happened that they had no dinner at all, and the whole family went to bed hungry.
“Marie,” Jean sometimes said, when, hungry, they lay in a dark room and could not sleep, “I really want chocolate gingerbread.”
“Sleep, Jean,” answered Marie, who was older and smarter than her brother.
– Oh, how I want to eat a big chocolate gingerbread with raisins! – Jean sighed loudly.
But chocolate gingerbread with raisins did not grow on trees, and Marie and Jean's parents did not have the money to go to the city and buy them for their children. Only Sundays were joyful for children. Then Jean and Marie took baskets and went into the forest to pick mushrooms and berries.
“Don’t go too far,” my mother always reminded me.
“Nothing will happen to them,” her father reassured her. “Every tree in the forest is familiar to them.”
One Sunday, the children, while picking mushrooms and berries, were so carried away that they did not notice how evening had come.
The sun quickly disappeared behind dark clouds, and the branches of the fir trees rustled ominously. Marie and Jean looked around in fear. The forest no longer seemed so familiar to them.
“Marie, I’m scared,” Jean said in a whisper.
“Me too,” Marie answered. - It seems we are lost.
Large, unfamiliar trees looked like silent giants with broad shoulders. Here and there in the thicket, lights sparkled - someone’s predatory eyes.
“Marie, I’m afraid,” Jean whispered again.
It became completely dark. The children, shivering from the cold, huddled together. Somewhere nearby an owl hooted, and from afar came the howl of a hungry wolf. The terrible night lasted endlessly. The children, listening to the ominous voices, never slept a wink. Finally, the sun flashed between the thick crowns of trees, and gradually the forest ceased to seem gloomy and scary. Jean and Marie got up and went to look for their way home.
They walked and walked through unfamiliar places. Huge mushrooms grew all around, much larger than those they usually collected. And in general everything was somehow unusual and strange. When the sun was already high, Marie and Jean came out into a clearing in the middle of which stood a house. Unusual house.
Its roof was made of chocolate gingerbread, its walls were made of pink marzipan, and its fence was made of large almonds. There was a garden around it, and colorful candies grew in it, and large raisins hung on small trees. Jean couldn't believe his own eyes. He looked at Marie, swallowing his saliva.
- Gingerbread house! – he exclaimed joyfully.
- Garden of candy! – Marie echoed him.
Without wasting a minute, the hungry children rushed to the wonderful house. Jean broke off a piece of gingerbread from the roof and began to eat it. Marie went into the kindergarten and began to feast on marzipan carrots, almonds from the fence, and raisins from the tree.
– What a delicious roof! – Jean was happy.
“Try a piece of the fence, Jean,” Marie suggested to him.
When the children had eaten their fill of unusual delicacies, they became thirsty. Fortunately, in the middle of the garden there was a fountain in which the water gurgled, shimmering with all the colors. Jean took a sip from the fountain and exclaimed in surprise:
- Yes, this is lemonade!
The delighted children greedily drank lemonade, when suddenly a hunched old woman appeared from around the corner of the gingerbread house. She had a stick in her hand, and very thick glasses sat on her nose.
– Delicious house, isn’t it, kids? – she asked.
The children were silent. Frightened Marie stammered:
- We were lost in the forest... we were so hungry...
The old lady didn't seem angry at all.
- Don’t be afraid, guys. Enter the house. I will give you tastier treats than these.
As soon as the door of the house slammed behind Marie and Jean, the old woman changed beyond recognition. From being kind and friendly, she turned into an evil witch.
- So you got caught! – she wheezed, shaking her stick. – Is it good to have someone else’s house? You will pay me for this!
The children trembled and clung to each other in fear.
-What will you do to us for this? Perhaps you will tell our parents everything? – Marie asked in fear.
The witch laughed.
- Well, not that! I like children very much. Very!
And before Marie came to her senses, the witch grabbed Jean, pushed him into a dark closet and closed the heavy oak door behind him.
- Marie, Marie! – the boy’s exclamations were heard. - I'm scared!
- Sit quietly, you scoundrel! – the witch shouted. “You ate my house, now I’ll eat you!” But first I need to fatten you up a little, otherwise you are too thin.
Jean and Marie cried loudly. Now they were ready to give all the gingerbread in the world to again find themselves in a poor but dear house. But home and parents were far away, and no one could come to their aid.
Then the evil mistress of the gingerbread house approached the closet.
“Hey, boy, put your finger through the crack in the door,” she ordered.
Jean obediently stuck his thinnest finger through the crack. The witch touched him and said displeasedly:
- Yes, just bones. It’s okay, in a week I’ll have you plump and plump.
And the witch began to feed Jean intensively. Every day she prepared delicious dishes for him, bringing armfuls of marzipan, chocolate and honey treats from the kindergarten. And in the evening she ordered him to stick his finger into the crack and felt it.
“Oh, my dear, you’re getting fat right before our eyes.”
And indeed, Jean quickly gained weight. But one day Marie came up with this.
“Jean, next time, show her this wand,” she said and stuck a thin wand into the closet.
In the evening, the witch, as usual, turned to Jean:
- Come on, show me your finger, my sweetie.
Jean stuck out the wand that his sister gave him. The old woman touched it and jumped back as if scalded:
- Again, just bones! I’m not feeding you, you parasite, so that you’ll be as thin as a stick!
The next day, when Jean stuck his wand in again, the witch became seriously angry.
“You can’t still be that skinny!” Show me your finger again.
And Jean stuck his wand in again. The old woman touched it and suddenly pulled it with all her might. The wand remained in her hand.
- What is this? What is this? – she shouted in rage. - Stick! Oh, you worthless deceiver! Well, now your song is over!
She opened the closet and pulled out the frightened Jean, who had grown fat and became like a barrel.
“Well, my dear,” the old woman gloated. “I see that you’ll make a great roast!”
The children were numb with horror. And the witch lit the stove, and a minute later it was already on fire. She was so hot.
– Do you see this apple? - asked the old woman Jean. She took a ripe, juicy apple from the table and threw it into the oven. The apple hissed in the fire, shriveled, and then disappeared completely. - The same will happen to you!
The witch grabbed a large wooden shovel, on which bread is usually placed in the oven, placed plump Jean on it and thrust it into it. However, the boy became so fat that he could not fit into the stove, no matter how the witch tried to push him there.
- Well, get down! - the old woman ordered. - Let's try differently. Lie down on the shovel.
“But I don’t know how to lie down,” Jean whined.
- What a fool! - the witch muttered. - I'll show you!
And she lay down on the shovel. That's all Marie needed. At that very moment she grabbed a shovel and shoved the witch straight into the oven. Then she quickly closed the iron door and, grabbing her frightened brother by the hand, shouted:
- Let's run, quickly!
The children ran out of the gingerbread house and rushed without looking back towards the dark forest.
Without making out the road, they ran through the forest for a long time and slowed down only when the first stars appeared in the sky and the forest gradually began to thin out.
Suddenly, in the distance, they noticed a faint flickering light.
- This is our house! - shouted the out of breath Jean.
Indeed, it was their old, rickety house. Concerned parents stood on his threshold and peered into the darkness with anxiety and hope. How happy they were when they saw the children running towards them - Marie and Jean! And no one else heard about the evil witch who lived in the deep forest. She probably burned in her stove, and her fairy-tale house fell apart into thousands of gingerbread and marzipan crumbs, which were eaten by forest birds.
Published by: Mishka 10.11.2017 12:07 29.04.2018On the edge of a dense dense forest lived a poor woodcutter and his wife. He had two children: a boy Hansel and a girl Gretel. The woodcutter's wife was not their natural mother, but their stepmother. It was sometimes difficult for the poor: it often happened that they were hungry, and sometimes they were completely without bread. Once, during such a great need, a woodcutter lay on his hard bed and could not sleep from annoying, bitter thoughts. And he says to his wife with a sigh:
“I can’t figure out how to get out of this.” What should we do with our children if we ourselves are without bread?
“Here’s what I came up with,” his wife answered him, “we’ll take the children early tomorrow into the forest, into the deepest thicket.” Let's make a fire there, leave a piece of bread for the children, and we ourselves will go to work. The children will be left alone in the forest and will never find their way home.
“No, I can’t listen to you,” said the husband. “I don’t have the courage to leave my children in the forest to be eaten there.” wild animals.
- Oh, you simpleton! - the wife screamed. “Or do you want us all to die of hunger before your eyes, and you will knock together coffins for us?”
Then his wife began to pester him until he promised to do as she wanted. And the woodcutter kept saying:
“Oh, I’m so sorry to death for my miserable children!”
But the children did not sleep: they were also hungry. They heard everything that the father and stepmother said. Gretel cried bitterly and complained to her brother:
- We are completely lost now!
“Stop,” Hansel told her, “what’s the point of grieving?” Wait, I'll help you out of trouble.
As soon as his father and stepmother fell asleep, Hansel got up, got dressed, opened the door and left the house. A clear month illuminated the white pebbles on the road near the house, and they sparkled like new money. Hansel bent down and filled his pocket full with them, and then came home and said to his sister:
- That's it, Gretel, sleep well. The Lord will help us.
And he lay down on the bed.
At dawn, before the sun had yet risen, the stepmother woke up the children:
- Hey, lazybones, get up quickly and get ready for firewood in the forest!
And she gave the children a piece of bread with the words:
“Here’s your lunch, but be careful, don’t eat it ahead of time, otherwise you won’t get anything else.”
Gretel hid both pieces under her apron, and Hansel had a pocket full of pebbles. And everyone went into the forest. Hansel stepped once, twice and stopped, took another step and again looked back at the house. So his father asks him:
- Why are you yawning, Hansel? Walk as you should, and make sure you don’t fall behind.
And Hansel answers him:
“My dear father, I look at my white cat: she sat down on the roof, as if she was saying goodbye to me.
- What a fool! - the stepmother shouted. - Is this your cat? This pipe turns white in the sun.
But Hansel didn’t actually see any cat, he was simply throwing pebbles onto the road. The woodcutter and the children climbed into the thicket of the forest and began to tell them:
- Here's what, guys: gather some brushwood here, and I'll light a fire for you so you can warm up.
Hansel and Gretel hauled up a large pile of brushwood, and the woodcutter set it on fire. When the fire rose high, the stepmother said:
- Relax, children, by the fire, while we start chopping wood. We'll chop wood and take you home with us.
Hansel and Gretel stayed by the fire and ate their own morsels. All the time they heard the sound of an ax and were sure that their father was close. In fact, it was a dry branch knocking: the woodcutter tied it to a tree, the branch was swayed by the wind, and it knocked. The children sat for a long time, got tired and wanted to sleep. They lay down and fell into a deep sleep, and when they woke up, it was completely dark in the forest. Night has come. Gretel cried:
- Oh, how can we get out of here now?
“Wait,” Hansel persuaded her, “the month will rise in the sky, and we will see the road.”
As soon as I looked out full moon, Hansel took Gretel's hand and went to find the way. Hansel's pebbles sparkled like new money, and from them the children could clearly see the way home. They walked for a long time, walked all night, and at dawn they found themselves in front of their native hut. When the children knocked, the stepmother herself opened the door for them and shouted:
- Oh, you are worthless! We thought that you would never come home! How dare you sleep in the forest for so long?
But all this time the father was grieving about the children abandoned in the forest and now he was very happy about them.
How much time passed, or how little time passed, and the woodcutter’s family again had nothing to eat. The stepmother pestered her husband again:
“We only have half a crust of bread left.” Let's take the children further into the forest so that they never return home. We can’t die of hunger along with them!
It was hard for the poor woodcutter to hear this.
But his wife did not allow him to say a word, and attacked him with reproaches and abuse. And he again gave in to the grumpy woman.
The children were awake and heard everything. As soon as the father and stepmother fell asleep, Hansel got up and went to pick up pebbles, but the stepmother had previously locked the door tightly, and Hansel returned to his place empty-handed. Then he again began to persuade his sister:
- Sleep, Gretel, stop crying, the Lord will not leave us.
As soon as dawn began to break, the stepmother woke up the children, gave them a piece of bread, even less than last time, and led them into the forest. Along the way, Hansel stopped every minute and threw back crumbs of bread. So he crumbled his entire piece.
“What is it, Hansel, that you keep stopping and looking behind you?” - said the father. - Walk quickly.
“I look at my white dove,” answered Hansel, “he sat down on the roof and says goodbye to me.”
- What a fool! - the stepmother shouted to him. - What kind of dove is there? This pipe turns white in the sun.
And Hansel had already managed to scatter crumbs along the road.
“Stay here while we chop wood.” Get tired, sleep, and in the evening we will take you home.
Hansel had long ago crumbled all his bread along the way, and Gretel shared her small piece with her brother.
After lunch, the children fell asleep soundly, and when they woke up, it was pitch black in the forest. Father and stepmother still did not come for them. But Hansel persuaded his sister:
- Come on, Gretel, the moon will rise above the forest and illuminate our breadcrumbs along the way, along which we will return home.
The month rose above the forest, and the children gathered home, but could not find a single crumb: all of them were eaten by forest birds. Then Hansel said to his sister:
- Well, somehow we’ll get out onto the road.
They walked all long night and all day, and the forest still stretched on and there was no end to it. The children were tired and hungry: they were the only ones to eat, so forest berries. They could barely move their legs, lay down under a tree and fell fast asleep.
The next morning the children set off again on the road and again walked for a long time, but they could not get out of the forest and climbed deeper and deeper into the green thicket. In the middle of the afternoon a little white bird appeared to the children. A bird sat on a branch and sang a song, so wonderful that the children began to listen. The bird finished singing, shook its wings and flew away. The children followed her and soon came to the hut. A little white bird landed on the roof of the hut. But the hut was not simple: it was all made of tasty white bread, covered with gingerbread, and a clean candy was inserted into the windows. Hansel says:
“Come on, Gretel, let’s take over the hut - we’ll have a nice dinner!” I'll eat the roof, and you try the window. That's right, it's sweet!
Hansel stood on tiptoe, broke off a piece of the roof and began to devour it on both cheeks, and his little sister began to bite the window little by little. Suddenly a thin voice was heard from the hut:
Knock-knock under the window,
Who's knocking on my door?
And the children responded:
The breeze has come to you
Ambassador of the bright sky.
And still they continued to devour the hut. Hansel liked the roof, and Gretel liked the window. So they broke off their big piece. Suddenly the door of the hut opened wide, and a decrepit old woman with a crutch appeared on the threshold. Hansel and Gretel were scared to death, they even dropped their pieces to the ground. And the old woman shook her head and muttered:
- Hey guys, how did you get here? You are welcome to stay and live with me, I will not do anything bad to you.
And the old woman led the children by the hands into her hut. There was already a wonderful lunch prepared on the table: milk, gingerbread, nuts and apples. After dinner, the old woman made two beds for the children, and Hansel thought, when he lay down, that he had gone to heaven, to paradise.
But the old woman was actually an evil, despicable witch and only pretended to be affectionate. She lay in wait for the children and built a gingerbread hut just for bait. And when the children fell for her bait, the old woman killed them, boiled them and ate them. The old woman’s eyes were red, she saw poorly with them, but she could smell a person from afar, like an animal. As soon as Hansel and Gretel approached her hut, she was delighted and began to chuckle:
- Oh, you got caught, my dears, now you won’t leave!
The next day she got up early, when the children were still sleeping soundly, saw their flushed faces and grumbled:
- It will be a nice piece for me!
Then the witch took Hansel with her bony hands, carried him to the stall and locked him with a lattice fence. If Hansel had started screaming and calling for help there, no one would have heard him anyway. The old woman woke up little Gretel and shouted at her:
- Hey, you lazy thing, get up quickly! Bring water and prepare a better lunch for your brother. We need to feed him well. I’ve already put him in a stall: as soon as he gets fatter, I’ll give him lunch.
Poor Gretel cried bitterly, but did not dare to disobey, she went to do what the evil old woman ordered her.
From then on, Hansel was fed a good lunch, and his sister only picked up scraps. The old woman went to the stall every day and asked:
“Come on, Hansel, quickly give me your finger, I’ll feel it to see how much fat you’ve gained.”
Hansel held out a dry bone from behind the bars, and the old woman blindly thought that it was really Hansel’s finger, and wondered why the boy was not getting fat. So a whole month passed, and Hansel still did not gain weight. Finally the old woman got tired of waiting, and she said to Gretel:
- Hey, Gretel! Bring water quickly: tomorrow I will slaughter Hansel and boil him, even though he is not fattened.
Poor Gretel cried bitterly, but she still had to fetch water for the old woman. Then she prayed to God:
- Help us, Merciful Lord! It would be better if we were both attacked by wild animals in the forest, then we would both die!
And the old woman shouted at her:
- Will you shut up, stupid? No one will help you anyway!
The next day, early, the girl hung the cauldron over the fireplace and lit a fire under it. And the old woman says:
“I’ve already kneaded the dough and lit the stove: first we’ll bake the bread.”
She said this and pushed the poor girl towards the large stove. And the fire bursts out of the stove.
- Well, get into the oven! - the witch shouted. “See if it’s hot enough, and if it’s time to plant grains.”
Gretel wanted to look into the oven, but the old woman decided to close it with a damper so that the girl would roast in the oven. But Gretel guessed what the witch was up to and said:
“Grandma, I don’t know how they get into the oven.”
- What a fool! - the witch shouted. - Isn’t there enough space here? I could fit in here too!
And she stuck her head into the oven.
Then Gretel contrived to push the old woman so hard that she immediately jumped into the stove. Gretel slammed the flap shut and then bolted it on top. The witch began to howl terribly in the stove, and Gretel quickly ran away and let the evil witch burn.
Gretel ran from the stove to the stall, unlocked it, let Hansel out and shouted cheerfully:
- Listen, Hansel! We got rid of the old woman! She's no longer alive!
And Hansel flew out of his stall, like a light bird from a cage, and hugged his sister and jumped for joy. And then they went to the old woman’s hut: now they had no one to fear. In the hut there were chests with pearls and semi-precious stones everywhere.
“Well, Gretel,” said Hansel, “these will perhaps be better than the naked ones?”
And he filled his pockets full with semi-precious stones, and Gretel filled his apron full with them.
“Well, now let’s get on the road,” said Hansel.
So they went. They walked for an hour, walked for two, and came to a large lake.
- How will we cross to the other side? - says Hansel. - There is neither a bridge nor a plank here.
“There’s not even a boat,” Gretel picked up, “but just look, there, far away, a white duck is swimming.” Let's ask her to move us. - And Gretel shouted to the duck:
Our duck, duck!
There is no way for us anywhere,
Not a plank, not a pole,
Take us on the back!
The duck obeyed, swam to the shore and let Hansel sit on its back. Hansel began to call Gretel to sit next to him, but Gretel said:
- No, it’s hard for a duck to carry both of us at once, let him transport us one by one.
The duck transported them one by one. The children crossed to the other side and suddenly began to notice that a familiar road was going through the forest. So they came to their hut, and when they saw it from a distance, they set off forward, running. The children ran into the hut and rushed to their father. The poor woodcutter grieved all the time for his abandoned children. And during this time the stepmother managed to die.
Hansel and Gretel shook out their pockets and apron onto the floor. Then pearls and semi-precious stones scattered all over the hut. And from then on the woodcutter and his children began to live and live and make good things: now they had nothing to fear from hunger.
Once upon a time there lived a brother and sister, Jean and Marie. Their parents were very poor, and they lived in an old house on the edge of the forest. The children worked from morning to night, helping their father, the woodcutter. Often they returned home so tired that they did not even have the strength to eat dinner. However, it often happened that they had no dinner at all, and the whole family went to bed hungry.
“Marie,” Jean sometimes said, when, hungry, they lay in a dark room and could not sleep, “I really want chocolate gingerbread.”
“Sleep, Jean,” answered Marie, who was older and smarter than her brother.
– Oh, how I want to eat a big chocolate gingerbread with raisins! – Jean sighed loudly.
But chocolate gingerbread with raisins did not grow on trees, and Marie and Jean's parents did not have the money to go to the city and buy them for their children. Only Sundays were joyful for children. Then Jean and Marie took baskets and went into the forest to pick mushrooms and berries.
“Don’t go too far,” my mother always reminded me.
“Nothing will happen to them,” her father reassured her. “Every tree in the forest is familiar to them.”
One Sunday, the children, while picking mushrooms and berries, were so carried away that they did not notice how evening had come.
The sun quickly disappeared behind dark clouds, and the branches of the fir trees rustled ominously. Marie and Jean looked around in fear. The forest no longer seemed so familiar to them.
“I’m scared, Marie,” Jean said in a whisper.
“Me too,” Marie answered. - It seems we are lost.
Large, unfamiliar trees looked like silent giants with broad shoulders. Here and there in the thicket, lights sparkled - someone’s predatory eyes.
“Marie, I’m afraid,” Jean whispered again.
It became completely dark. The children, shivering from the cold, huddled together. Somewhere nearby an owl hooted, and from afar came the howl of a hungry wolf.
The terrible night lasted endlessly. The children, listening to the ominous voices, never slept a wink. Finally, the sun flashed between the thick crowns of trees, and gradually the forest ceased to seem gloomy and scary. Jean and Marie got up and went to look for their way home.
They walked and walked through unfamiliar places. Huge mushrooms grew all around, much larger than those they usually collected. And in general everything was somehow unusual and strange.
When the sun was already high, Marie and Jean came out into a clearing in the middle of which stood a house. Unusual house. Its roof was made of chocolate gingerbread, its walls were made of pink marzipan, and its fence was made of large almonds. There was a garden around it, and colorful candies grew in it, and large raisins hung on small trees. Jean couldn't believe his own eyes. He looked at Marie, swallowing his saliva.
- Gingerbread house! – he exclaimed joyfully.
- Garden of candy! – Marie echoed him.
Without wasting a minute, the hungry children rushed to the wonderful house. Jean broke off a piece of gingerbread from the roof and began to eat it. Marie went into the kindergarten and began to feast on marzipan carrots, almonds from the fence, and raisins from the tree.
– What a delicious roof! – Jean was happy.
“Try a piece of the fence, Jean,” Marie suggested to him.
When the children had eaten their fill of unusual delicacies, they became thirsty. Fortunately, in the middle of the garden there was a fountain in which the water gurgled, shimmering with all the colors. Jean took a sip from the fountain and exclaimed in surprise:
- Yes, this is lemonade!
The delighted children greedily drank lemonade, when suddenly a hunched old woman appeared from around the corner of the gingerbread house. She had a stick in her hand, and very thick glasses sat on her nose.
– Delicious house, isn’t it, kids? – she asked.
The children were silent. Frightened Marie stammered:
- We... we were lost in the forest... we were so hungry...
The old lady didn't seem angry at all.
- Don't be afraid, guys. Enter the house. I will give you tastier delicacies than these.
As soon as the door of the house slammed behind Marie and Jean, the old woman changed beyond recognition. From being kind and friendly, she turned into an evil witch.
- So you got caught! – she wheezed, shaking her stick. – Is it good to have someone else’s house? You will pay me for this!
The children trembled and clung to each other in fear.
-What will you do to us for this? Perhaps you will tell our parents everything? – Marie asked in fear.
The witch laughed.
- Well, not that! I like children very much. Very!
And before Marie came to her senses, the witch grabbed Jean, pushed him into a dark closet and closed the heavy oak door behind him.
- Marie! – the boy’s exclamations were heard. - I'm scared!
- Sit quietly, you scoundrel! – the witch shouted. “You ate my house, now I’ll eat you!” But first I need to fatten you up a little, otherwise you are too thin.
Jean and Marie cried loudly. Now they were ready to give all the gingerbread in the world to again find themselves in a poor but dear house. But home and parents were far away, and no one could come to their aid.
Then the evil mistress of the gingerbread house approached the closet.
“Hey, boy, put your finger through the crack in the door,” she ordered.
Jean obediently stuck his thinnest finger through the crack. The witch touched him and said displeasedly:
- Just bones. It’s okay, in a week I’ll have you plump and plump.
And the witch began to feed Jean intensively. Every day she prepared delicious dishes for him, bringing armfuls of marzipan, chocolate and honey treats from the kindergarten. And in the evening she ordered him to stick his finger into the crack and felt it.
- My dear, you are getting fat right before our eyes.
And indeed, Jean quickly gained weight. But one day Marie came up with this.
“Jean, next time, show her this wand,” she said and stuck a thin wand into the closet.
In the evening, the witch, as usual, turned to Jean:
- Well, show me your finger, my sweetie.
Jean stuck out the wand that his sister gave him. The old woman touched it and jumped back as if scalded:
- Again, just bones! I’m not feeding you, you parasite, so that you’ll be as thin as a stick!
The next day, when Jean stuck his wand in again, the witch became seriously angry.
“You can’t still be that skinny!” Show me your finger again.
And Jean stuck his wand in again. The old woman touched it and suddenly pulled it with all her might. The wand remained in her hand.
- What is this? – she shouted in rage. - Stick! Oh, you worthless deceiver! Well , now your song is over!
She opened the closet and pulled out the frightened Jean, who had grown fat and became like a barrel.
“Well, my dear,” the old woman gloated. “I see that you’ll make a great roast!”
The children were numb with horror. And the witch lit the stove, and a minute later it was already on fire. The heat was radiating from there.
– Do you see this apple? - asked the old woman Jean. She took a ripe, juicy apple from the table and threw it into the oven. The apple hissed in the fire, shriveled, and then disappeared completely. - The same will happen to you!
The witch grabbed a large wooden shovel, on which bread is usually placed in the oven, placed plump Jean on it and thrust it into it. However, the boy became so fat that he could not fit into the stove, no matter how the witch tried to push him there.
- Well, get down! - the old woman ordered. - Let's try differently. Lie down on the shovel.
“But I don’t know how to lie down,” Jean whined.
- What a fool! - the witch muttered. - I'll show you!
And she lay down on the shovel. That's all Marie needed. At that very moment she grabbed a shovel and shoved the witch straight into the oven. Then she quickly closed the iron door and, grabbing her frightened brother by the hand, shouted:
- Let's run, quickly!
The children ran out of the gingerbread house and rushed without looking back towards the dark forest.
Without making out the road, they ran through the forest for a long time and slowed down only when the first stars appeared in the sky and the forest gradually began to thin out.
Suddenly, in the distance, they noticed a faint flickering light.
- This is our house! - shouted the out of breath Jean.
Indeed, it was their old, rickety house. Concerned parents stood on his threshold and peered into the darkness with anxiety and hope.
How happy they were when they saw the children running towards them - Marie and Jean!
And no one else heard about the evil witch who lived in the deep forest. She probably burned in her stove, and her fairy-tale house fell apart into thousands of gingerbread and marzipan crumbs, which were eaten by forest birds.
