They will
show us our way home again." When the moon rose they set out, but they
found no crumbs, for the many thousands of birds which fly about in
the woods and fields had picked them all up. Haensel said to Grethel,
"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, and 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 would carry them no longer,
they lay down beneath a tree and fell asleep.
It was now three mornings since they had left their father's house.
They began to walk again, but they always got so much deeper into the
forest that, if help did not come soon, they must die of hunger and
weariness. When it was mid-day, they saw a beautiful snow-white bird
sitting on a bough, which sang so delightfully that they stood still
and listened to it. And when it had finished its song, it spread
its wings and flew away before them, and they followed it until they
reached a little house, on the roof of which it alighted; and when
they came quite up to the little house they saw that it was built
of bread and covered with cakes, and that the windows were of clear
sugar. "We will set to work on that," said Haensel, "and have a good
meal. I will eat a bit of the roof, and thou, Grethel, canst eat some
of the window; it will taste sweet.
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