''
``Do not thank me,'' answered the lad. ``Thank
the brave Shippeitaro. It was he who sprang upon
the great Tomcat and chased away the Phantom
Creatures.''
HANSEL AND GRETHEL
BY THE BROTIIERS GRIMM (ADAPTED)
Hard-by a great forest dwelt a poor wood-cutter
with his two children and his wife who was
their stepmother. The boy was called Hansel
and the girl Grethel. The wood-cutter had little
to bite and to break, and once when a great
famine fell on the land he could no longer get
daily bread. Now when he thought over this by
night in his bed, and tossed about in his trouble,
he groaned, and said to his wife:--
``What is to become of us? How are we to feed
our poor children, when we no longer have anything
even for ourselves?''
``I'll tell you what, husband,'' answered the
woman; ``early to-morrow morning we will take
the children out into the woods where it is the
thickest; there we will light a fire for them, and
give each of them one piece of bread more, and
then we will go to our work and leave them alone.
They will not find the way home again, and we
shall be rid of them.''
``No, wife,'' said the man, ``I will not do that;
how can I bear to leave my children alone in the
woods?--the wild beasts would soon come and
tear them to pieces.''
``Oh, you fool!'' said she. ``Then we must all
four die of hunger; you may as well plane the
planks for our coffins.
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