yellow fairy tale book

Chapter 31 The Witch
Once upon a time there was a farmer whose wife died, leaving him with two children—a pair of twin siblings.For several years the poor man lived alone with the children, and took care of them as best he could; but without a woman in the house, nothing seemed right.In the end he decided to remarry, feeling that his wife would bring peace to the family, bring the family back to normal, and take good care of the motherless children.So he got married again, and in the next few years the family added several children, but the family did not get peace and returned to normal.The stepmother was cruel to the twins, beating them, starving them to death, and often kicking them out of the house—all she wanted was to get them out.All day long she thought only of one thing, how to get them away, and at last she thought of a wicked way, determined to send the two children to the dark forest, where lived a vicious witch.So she said to them one morning:

"You have been very good children, so I am going to send you to see my grandma, who lives in a lovely cottage in the woods. You must take good care of her, but she will return you well and take care of everything The best for you."

In this way the two children left home.The little girl was very clever and said to her brother:
"Let's go see our good grandmother first, and tell her where my stepmother is taking us."

When the grandmother learned where they were going, she exclaimed:

"You two poor motherless children! I feel sorry for you, but I can't help you! Your stepmother is not sending you to her grandmother, but to a wicked witch in the big dark forest. There. Now listen, children. You must be polite and friendly to everyone, and never speak ill of anyone. After all, who knows you won't get help?"

Then she gave her grandson a bottle of milk, a piece of ham and a loaf of bread, and they set off for the dark forest.When they came to the forest, they saw a strange hut in the dense forest in front of them. When they looked inside, they found a witch lying in it. , almost touching the ceiling.

"Who's there?" she yelled, in a terrible voice, when she saw the children.

Although the children tried to hide back in fear, they still politely replied:

"Good morning, grandma; our stepmother has sent us to wait on you."

"Then it's time to do well," roared the witch. "If you make me happy, I'll reward you; otherwise, I'll fry you in the oven—and I'll do that to you, sweet little ones! You've never suffered so much when you grow up, and it's hard to serve me well now." It's not that easy. See if you can bear it?"

When she had finished speaking she made the girl sit down and spin, and gave the boy a sieve to fetch water from the well, while she went into the wood herself.Behold, the girl sat by the reel and wept bitterly, for she could not spin, and heard only the sound of hundreds of little feet, and mice coming out of every hole and corner of the room, and laying on the floor. Climb up and down and say in a high-pitched voice:
Girl, why are your eyes so red?

If you want to help, give us some bread, please?
The girl gave them the bread her grandmother had given her.Then the mouse said that the Witch had a cat, and that the cat liked ham very much; and if she gave the ham to the cat, it would tell her how to get out of the forest, and they would help her spin the yarn.So the girl went out to look for the cat, and in searching about she met her brother who was very troubled, for he could not get water from the well with a sieve, and the water leaked out as soon as he filled it.She tried to comfort him, when they heard the rustling of wings, and a flock of wrens descending on the ground beside them.Wren said:

Give us some crumbs and you won't have to mourn.

And you'll find that the water stays in the sieve all the time.

The twins broke the bread on the ground for the wren to peck at, chirping.When the last crumbs were eaten, they told the boy to fill the sieve holes with mud and go to the well to draw water.He did so, and filled the sieve with water and brought it into the house without missing a drop.The cat was curled up on the floor when they entered; they stroked it, fed it ham, and said to it:
"Little cat, little gray cat, will you tell us how to get away from the witch?"

The Cat thanked them for the ham, and gave them a little handkerchief and a comb, saying that when the Witch came after them--and of course she would--they had only to drop the handkerchief on the ground and get away as fast as they could.As soon as the handkerchief falls to the ground, a deep and wide river will suddenly appear, blocking the witch.If she managed to cross the river, they must leave the comb behind them and run as fast as they could, for if the comb fell on the ground, a dense forest would rise up there to prevent the Witch from pursuing, and enable them to escape safely.

As soon as the cat had finished speaking of the witch, the cat came back to see if the two children had completed their task.

"Hmph, you did a good job today." She muttered, "But tomorrow you have to do more difficult things, if you don't do well, I'll send you two little guys who only know how to eat directly into the oven inside."

The poor children, half dead with fright, lay trembling on a pile of straw in the corner; they dared not close their eyes, or breathe aloud.In the morning the witch gave the girl two rolls of flax to weave before evening, and asked the boy to chop a pile of wood into firewood.After leaving them work, the witch went to the forest by herself.No sooner had she disappeared than the children took their combs and handkerchiefs, and took each other's hands and started running at full speed.They met the watchdog first, and when he was about to pounce on them and tear them to pieces, they tossed him the rest of the bread, and he wagged his tail when he had eaten.Then they were blocked by birches again, whose branches almost prevented them from seeing ahead.But the girl tied them up with a ribbon, and they passed safely, and ran out of the forest into an open field.

Meanwhile the Cat was busy spinning the flax in the house, and made a mess of the threads.The witch went back to see how the children were doing, and she crept quietly to the window, and whispered:
"Are you weaving, sweetheart?"

"Yes, Grandma, I am spinning," replied the cat.

When the witch saw that the two children had run away, she was very angry, and hit the cat with a porridge bowl, saying, "Why did you let the children run away? Why didn't you gouge out their eyes?"

The cat curled up its tail, stretched its waist, and replied: "I have served you for so many years, and you have never thrown me a bone, but those two lovely children gave me all their hams."

Then the Witch was very angry again with the Dog and the Birch, for letting the Child pass.But the dog replied:
"I have served you for so many years, and you have never given me even a crust of hard bread, but those two lovely children have given me their own bread."

Then the birch rustled its leaves and said, "I have served you longer than I reckoned, and you have not tied a single twine to my branch, while those two lovely children have used them The brightest ribbons are tied to my branches."

The witch saw that her servants in the past did not help her, so now she had to catch up with the children on a broomstick.When the children ran forward, they heard the sound of the broom dragging closely behind, and immediately threw their handkerchiefs over their shoulders, and soon a deep and wide river flowed behind.

When the Witch came to the river, it took her some time to find a place where she could ford with the help of a broomstick.At last she crossed the river, and the pursuit was even faster.As the children ran, they heard a sound, and the little girl pressed her ears to the ground, and heard the broom dragging behind her again.So she hastened to throw the comb on the ground, and in an instant, as the cat said, a dense forest rose up, with such a tangle of trunks and branches that it was impossible to get through.So when the witch came to the dense forest with her broom, she had to turn around and go back.

And the twins kept running back home.When the father heard what happened to them, he was very angry with the stepmother, kicked her out of the house, and never let her come back.He lives happily with his two children, taking care of them himself and never letting strangers get close to them again.

(End of this chapter)