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Once upon a time, there was a beautiful 

young girl named Isabella, who stayed at 

home to take care of her parents. The boys in 

her village would always try to suit her, but 

she was always busy with her parents. 

Unfortunately some years later, her parents 

died. All the men she grew up with had 

married long ago. There were new young 

men, but they were too young to remember a 

time when Isabella had been young and 

beautiful herself. They never came knocking 

at her door.

Then one day one of her old suitors came 

back. He was stooped and haggard. The man's 

name was Troy and he was a woodcutter who 

lived in a small cottage in the forest. His wife 

had just died, and he needed help raising his 

two small children. Isabella was horrified when 

she found that Troy had left the kids alone 

while he came to the village, so she 

immediately agreed to marry him and take 

care of them all. Troy's kids were beautiful, a 

boy and a girl, obviously twins, and couldn't 

have been older than six or seven.

"Hansel," Troy said to the boy, "Gretel," to the 

girl, "say hello to your new mother." Isabella 

stooped to give the kids a hug, but Gretel said, 

"She's not our mother. Our mother's dead. Hansel 

finished, "Our mother never loved us. She 

wouldn't have died if she did." Isabella suddenly 

felt very uncomfortable. The two children looked 

at each other. Their expressions never changed. 

In fact, Isabella thought, they really had no 

expressions: not happy, nor sad, nor angry. 

Just... there. "Children," Troy murmured as 

though begging them to give Isabella a chance. 

Still without a word, the children turned to leave.

The third day after her arrival, Isabella spent 

making cakes. While she worked there came a 

tapping at the door. "Yes?" she said to the old 

woman standing there brandishing her cane. 

"I'm the baker's widow. I stay at the edge of 

your woods. It's about them kids of yours. 

Yesterday they throwed rocks all over my 

garden. Isn't there anything you can do?" "I'm 

so sorry," Isabella gasped. I'll send them over 

to clean up--" "NO!" the woman hastily 

interrupted. She hobbled backward with her 

cane. "So sorry to bother you." 

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