once upon a time there was a peasant whose wife died, leaving him with two children — twins — a boy and a girl. for some years the poor man lived on alone with the children, caring for them as best he could; but everything in the house seemed to go wrong without a woman to look after it, and at last he made up his mind to marry again, feeling that a wife would bring peace and order to his household and take care of his motherless children. so he married, and in the following years several children were born to him; but peace and order did not come to the household. for the step-mother was very cruel to the twins, and beat them, and half-starved them, and constantly drove them out of the house; for her one idea was to get them out of the way. all day she thought of nothing but how she should get rid of them; and at last an evil idea came into her head, and she determined to send them out into the great gloomy wood where a wicked witch lived. and so one morning she spoke to them, saying:

‘you have been such good children that i am going to send you to visit my granny, who lives in a dear little hut in the wood. you will have to wait upon her and serve her, but you will be well rewarded, for she will give you the best of everything.’

so the children left the house together; and the little sister, who was very wise for her years, said to the brother:

‘we will first go and see our own dear grandmother, and tell her where our step-mother is sending us.’

and when the grandmother heard where they were going, she cried and said:

‘you poor motherless children! how i pity you; and yet i can do nothing to help you! your step-mother is not sending you to her granny, but to a wicked witch who lives in that great gloomy wood. now listen to me, children. you must be civil and kind to everyone, and never say a cross word to anyone, and never touch a crumb belonging to anyone else. who knows if, after all, help may not be sent to you?’

and she gave her grandchildren a bottle of milk and a piece of ham and a loaf of bread, and they set out for the great gloomy wood. when they reached it they saw in front of them, in the thickest of the trees, a queer little hut, and when they looked into it, there lay the witch, with her head on the threshold of the door, with one foot in one corner and the other in the other corner, and her knees cocked up, almost touching the ceiling.

‘who’s there?’ she snarled, in an awful voice, when she saw the children.

and they answered civilly, though they were so terrified that they hid behind one another, and said:

‘good-morning, granny; our step-mother has sent us to wait upon you, and serve you.’

‘see that you do it well, then,’ growled the witch. ‘if i am pleased with you, i’ll reward you; but if i am not, i’ll put you in a pan and fry you in the oven — that’s what i’ll do with you, my pretty dears! you have been gently reared, but you’ll find my work hard enough. see if you don’t.’

and, so saying, she set the girl down to spin yarn, and she gave the boy a sieve in which to carry water from the well, and she herself went out into the wood. now, as the girl was sitting at her distaff, weeping bitterly because she could not spin, she heard the sound of hundreds of little feet, and from every hole and corner in the hut mice came pattering along the floor, squeaking and saying:

‘little girl, why are your eyes so red?

if you want help, then give us some bread.’

and the girl gave them the bread that her grandmother had given her. then the mice told her that the witch had a cat, and the cat was very fond of ham; if she would give the cat her ham, it would show her the way out of the wood, and in the meantime they would spin the yarn for her. so the girl set out to look for the cat, and, as she was hunting about, she met her brother, in great trouble because he could not carry water from the well in a sieve, as it came pouring out as fast as he put it in. and as she was trying to comfort him they heard a rustling of wings, and a flight of wrens alighted on the ground beside them. and the wrens said:

‘give us some crumbs, then you need not grieve.

for you’ll find that water will stay in the sieve.’

then the twins crumbled their bread on the ground, and the wrens pecked it, and chirruped and chirped. and when they had eaten the last crumb they told the boy to fill up the holes of the sieve with clay, and then to draw water from the well. so he did what they said, and carried the sieve full of water into the hut without spilling a drop. when they entered the hut the cat was curled up on the floor. so they stroked her, and fed her with ham, and said to her:

‘pussy, grey pussy, tell us how we are to get away from the witch?’

then the cat thanked them for the ham, and gave them a pocket- handkerchief and a comb, and told them that when the witch pursued them, as she certainly would, all they had to do was to throw the handkerchief on the ground and run as fast as they could. as soon as the handkerchief touched the ground a deep, broad river would spring up, which would hinder the witch’s progress. if she managed to get across it, they must throw the comb behind them and run for their lives, for where the comb fell a dense forest would start up, which would delay the witch so long that they would be able to get safely away.

the cat had scarcely finished speaking when the witch returned to see if the children had fulfilled their tasks.

‘well, you have done well enough for to-day,’ she grumbled; ‘but to-morrow you’ll have something more difficult to do, and if you don’t do it well, you pampered brats, straight into the oven you go.’

half-dead with fright, and trembling in every limb, the poor children lay down to sleep on a heap of straw in the corner of the hut; but they dared not close their eyes, and scarcely ventured to breathe. in the morning the witch gave the girl two pieces of linen to weave before night, and the boy a pile of wood to cut into chips. then the witch left them to their tasks, and went out into the wood. as soon as she had gone out of sight the children took the comb and the handkerchief, and, taking one another by the hand, they started and ran, and ran, and ran. and first they met the watch-dog, who was going to leap on them and tear them to pieces; but they threw the remains of their bread to him, and he ate them and wagged his tail. then they were hindered by the birch-trees, whose branches almost put their eyes out. but the little sister tied the twigs together with a piece of ribbon, and they got past safely, and, after running through the wood, came out on to the open fields.

in the meantime in the hut the cat was busy weaving the linen and tangling the threads as it wove. and the witch returned to see how the children were getting on; and she crept up to the window, and whispered:

‘are you weaving, my little dear?’

‘yes, granny, i am weaving,’ answered the cat.

when the witch saw that the children had escaped her, she was furious, and, hitting the cat with a porringer, she said: ‘why did you let the children leave the hut? why did you not scratch their eyes out?’

but the cat curled up its tail and put its back up, and answered: ‘i have served you all these years and you never even threw me a bone, but the dear children gave me their own piece of ham.’

then the witch was furious with the watch-dog and with the birch-trees, because they had let the children pass. but the dog answered:

‘i have served you all these years and you never gave me so much as a hard crust, but the dear children gave me their own loaf of bread.’

and the birch rustled its leaves, and said: ‘i have served you longer than i can say, and you never tied a bit of twine even round my branches; and the dear children bound them up with their brightest ribbons.’

so the witch saw there was no help to be got from her old servants, and that the best thing she could do was to mount on her broom and set off in pursuit of the children. and as the children ran they heard the sound of the broom sweeping the ground close behind them, so instantly they threw the handkerchief down over their shoulder, and in a moment a deep, broad river flowed behind them.

when the witch came up to it, it took her a long time before she found a place which she could ford over on her broom-stick; but at last she got across, and continued the chase faster than before. and as the children ran they heard a sound, and the little sister put her ear to the ground, and heard the broom sweeping the earth close behind them; so, quick as thought, she threw the comb down on the ground, and in an instant, as the cat had said, a dense forest sprung up, in which the roots and branches were so closely intertwined, that it was impossible to force a way through it. so when the witch came up to it on her broom she found that there was nothing for it but to turn round and go back to her hut.

but the twins ran straight on till they reached their own home. then they told their father all that they had suffered, and he was so angry with their step-mother that he drove her out of the house, and never let her return; but he and the children lived happily together; and he took care of them himself, and never let a stranger come near them.