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"Do you live far away?" "There," said the little boy, pointing away into the forest, where not a sign of a house was visible. Here Grettel spoke for the first time: "Let's not," she said. "I don't think I care about wandering away into the woods." "We might get lost," suggested Cinderella. And now the giant interposed.
Prince Arthur seemed to feel that Hansel and Grettel had struck a wrong note, and he said, "Upon my word, it seemed to me that the singing and dancing weren't half bad!" "They were just perfect," declared Everychild. "That's really what Arthur meant," interposed Will o'Dreams.
Near them, and gazing at them challengingly, was the figure of a gallant young man with a crystal slipper of great delicacy in his hand. Another showed the parents of Hansel and Grettel, the father clasping a loaf of bread to him and gazing abstractedly before him. Another showed Old Mother Hubbard standing before a cupboard and looking into it intently.
And the Sleeping Beauty, with a dreamy smile on her lips, walked with him; and Cinderella followed a few steps behind. And then the others, one by one, fell into line: Hansel and Grettel, the sons and daughters of the Old Woman who lived in the shoe, Prince Arthur, Little Bo-Peep, Little Boy Blue, and last of all, Tom Hubbard and the little black dog.
He was not the Hans who married Grettel, but the one whom Miss Muffet had often heard of because he traded a horse for a cow, the cow for a pig, the pig for a goose, and so on, all the way home. This caused a good deal of talk in the neighborhood, and some of the villagers thought he wasn't much of a business man. Hans, however, was perfectly satisfied with himself, and was quite ready to talk.
"This comes of wearing one's good dress," said Grettel between tarts. "If I'd been wearing an old rag I'd have seen no tricks, that's certain." Jack regarded her a little curiously. "As I was saying," he resumed, "old Blunderbore shouted 'Pooh-hoo! at what I had done. That was his ugly, boasting way, you know.
They were the voices of children, and it was plain to Everychild that they were in trouble. He waited until they came close, and then his heart bounded, because he recognized them. He had often seen their pictures. They were Hansel and Grettel. Hansel was saying sorrowfully, "I am afraid they are all gone, Grettel, and we shall never be able to find our home again."
But Jack the Giant Killer nodded his head shrewdly. And almost instantly he said, "Well, you'll look at no more masterpieces whatever they are!" The giant seemed to be simply amused. "Say you so?" he replied. Grettel clasped her hands with delight. "How suitably he talks!" said she. "I do," said Jack. "You don't know me, eh? I'm Jack the Giant Killer. And you're just about my size."
The noises . . . there's something dreadful about the noises, when you can't bar a door between you and them." Hansel grunted very inelegantly. "Noises!" he retorted. "That's just like a girl. The only noise that bothers me is the rumbling of my insides. I'm hungry." Grettel closed her eyes as if this were really too much. She seemed unable to think of a word to say.
It is, however, somewhat remarkable that many citizens of Rotterdam swore to having seen the same hat repeatedly before; and indeed the whole assembly seemed to regard it with eyes of familiarity; while the vrow Grettel Pfaall, upon sight of it, uttered an exclamation of joyful surprise, and declared it to be the identical hat of her good man himself.
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