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When they woke up, the sun was shining, the birds were singing, and there was a sweet, delicious smell in the air.

"I am so hungry," said Gretel. "I think I smell cookies…."
"Look!" said Hansel, pointing. "A house!"

It was the strangest house they had ever seen. The walls looked like yellow lemon cookies. The windows looked like they were made of chocolate. The roof looked like it was made of green and red candies.

Hansel was starving. So he ran to the house and broke off a piece of the wall. "This tastes like a lemon cookie!" he said, surprised.

Hansel and Gretel seeing the gingerbread cottage

Gretel grabbed a piece of a window and stuffed it in her mouth. "This is chocolate!"

The children could not stop eating.

"We'll stay here forever," Hansel declared, munching on the apple pie porch.

They were just about to try a piece of the purple candy door when it quietly swung open.

"Hello!" said an old woman from behind the door. "Do you children like sweets? I have more inside the house! Come in! Come in! Don’t be afraid!"

The old woman looked kind and friendly, so the two children went inside.
Oh no! Bad idea! The old woman was not kind and friendly at all. She was an evil witch!

As soon as Hansel and Gretel were inside, she slammed the door and locked it. The children were trapped.

The evil witch grabbing Hansel's arm

The witch grabbed Hansel by his wrist. "You're too thin!" she said. "I must fatten you up before I eat you!" Then she threw Hansel into a cage and locked the door.

She turned to Gretel. "Foolish girl. You will do the household chores, then I'll eat you too!"

Hansel began to cry. “Please don’t eat me!” he begged.
But Gretel stayed calm. “Don’t worry. Now I have a plan!” whispered Gretel.

Then Gretel snuck over to her brother, and she gave him a twig. “Tomorrow morning, the witch will see if you are fat enough to eat. When she comes, give her this twig instead of your finger,” she ordered.

Gretel giving a twig to Hansel in his cage

Sure enough, in the morning, the witch hobbled over to Hansel and growled, “Stick your finger through the cage. I want to see if you are fat enough to eat!”

Hansel held out the twig.

"You're still too thin!" she complained. “Come here, foolish girl, and give your brother more sweets to eat.”

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