Once upon a time a brother and sister named Hansel and Gretel lived in a hut in the woods with their father.  Their father was a poor woodcutter.  His wife, their mother, had died when the two children were very young. Their father thought he would not be lonely anymore when he finally re-married.  But the new stepmother made life very hard for Hansel and Gretel. 

Yet the stepmother gave them more and more hard work to do.  One day Gretel begged her father, “Please, Father!  All day long we work hard and we’re hungry!”  But the stepmother slapped her face. “You ungrateful brats!" she yelled.  "You will eat us out of house and home!” 

That night the two children were not allowed to sleep in the hut. Outside in the cold, they shivered and tried to keep each other warm.  Winter was coming, and the clothes they wore were so thin it felt almost as if they had no clothes on at all.

The next morning when the sun rose, Gretel turned to her little brother. “Hansel,” she said, “we cannot stay here.  We must escape now, today, into the woods!  Surely we will find more to eat when we are on our own than what we get here at home.”

 They went deeper and deeper into the woods.  Gretel was careful to drop one crumb and then after a bit, another.

They looked and looked for any sign of something to eat. There was nothing to eat!  They got hungrier and hungrier. At last, poor Hansel and Gretel knew they must return to their hut or they would surely starve. They would just need to find the breadcrumbs and that would lead them home.   Yet when they looked for breadcrumbs, there were none to be found - all the breadcrumbs were gone!

When they got closer, they could not believe their eyes!  If you can imagine – from top to bottom the hut was made all of candy!  From its gingerbread roof, with frosting all over the walls, and with candies tucked into the frosting, what a sight to see!

Stunned, Gretel could only curtsy.  "If you please, ma’am,” she said, as sweetly as she could. “There was so much candy on your house.  And we are so hungry!”

“You have that right, MY house!" snapped the witch.  Her voice dropped.  "Well then,” said the witch in a gentler tone, “come inside.  I'll get something for you to eat.”