‘These are better than pebbles,’ said Hansel, as he filled his pockets.
Grethel said: ‘I must take something home with me too.’ And she filled her apron.
‘But now we must go,’ said Hansel, ‘so that we may get out of this enchanted wood.’
Before they had gone very far, they came to a great piece of water.
‘We can’t get across it,’ said Hansel; ‘I see no stepping-stones and no bridge.’
‘And there are no boats either,’ answered Grethel. ‘But there is a duck swimming, it will help us over if we ask it.’
So she cried—
Here Grethel and here Hansel stand.
Quickly, take us on your back,
No path nor bridge is there at hand!”
The duck came swimming towards them, and Hansel got on its back, and told his sister to sit on his knee.
‘No,’ answered Grethel, ‘it will be too heavy for the duck; it must take us over one after the other.’
The good creature did this, and when they had got safely over and walked for a while, the wood seemed to grow more and more familiar to them, and at last they saw their Father’s cottage in the distance. They began to run, and rushed inside, where they threw their arms round their Father’s neck. The Man had not had a single happy moment since he had deserted his children in the wood, and in the meantime his Wife was dead.
Grethel shook her apron and scattered the pearls and precious stones all over the floor, and Hansel added handful after handful out of his pockets.
So all their troubles came to an end, and they lived together as happily as possible.
