This continued for an entire week. Every day, the witch checked to see if Hansel was fat enough. Every day, Hansel held out the twig.

Finally, the witch got tired of waiting. On the eighth day, she called to Gretel: "Come here, foolish girl! Light the oven. Today I am going to eat roasted boy with carrots and gravy! Check if the oven is hot enough to roast your brother."

But clever little Gretel had another plan. She started to cry. "But I am too stupid. How do I know if the oven is hot enough? Can you show me?" she asked.

The witch muttered and grumbled: "Useless child! I'll check the oven myself."

The witch bent down to look at the bright orange flames, and quickly Gretel pushed her into the oven and slammed the door shut. THUD!
That was the end of the witch.

Gretel unlocked Hansel’s cage. The children found a basket and filled it with cakes and cookies, pies, and candies. Then they ran away as fast as they could.

They ran all night. They ran through the forest. They ran under the bridge. They crawled through the hole in the fence. They turned left. They turned right. Left. Right. Left. Right. Eventually they heard the sound of someone cutting wood in the distance.

It was the woodcutter! The children ran to their father and hugged him and kissed him. He cried and cried. But he was actually very happy.

"My sweet, sweet children! Where were you?"

Hansel and Gretel told the woodcutter the whole story. When he heard that their stepmother had abandoned them in the forest, he was furious. He ordered the stepmother to leave the house immediately and never return.

That night, Hansel and Gretel and their father had a late birthday party. They ate all the sweets from the basket: cherry pie, chocolate cake, green and red candies, blue lollipops, and gingerbread cookies.

Later that year, Hansel and Gretel were visiting the bakery in town when they saw an old woman begging for coins. It was their stepmother!

“Children! Please help me! I am starving!” she begged.

Gretel thought for a moment. She went inside the bakery and bought a small loaf of bread and a small bowl of soup.

“Here,” Gretel said. “Soup and bread. Your favorite.”

Hansel and Gretel never saw their stepmother ever again.