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Updated: May 31, 2025
But Hansel only gave her a lofty look. "I haven't seen him do anything great," he said. "Now, if he could show us something to eat . . ." "At least," said Grettel, "he wants to keep on going, while you're all for turning back. I think he speaks very sensibly." And she came forward with a pretty blush on her cheeks and took a seat demurely by Everychild's side.
All the children applauded generously; but during the silence which followed, Grettel remarked: "For my part, I like games that have kissing in them." Cinderella merely gazed at her, in reply to this, with lifted chin and half-closed eyes. Then Hansel observed: "If you'd leave it to me, I'd prefer sitting at a table where there'd be something left after you'd filled yourself as full as a drum."
They were shown into the place behind the curtain. Old Mother Hubbard following them with the greatest haste. They could be seen no more. But Truth was already speaking again in clear tones: "Father and mother of Hansel and Grettel, appear!" And the father and mother of Hansel and Grettel appeared from behind their curtain, and stood hand in hand, with downcast eyes.
There was one brief interruption when Hansel's voice could be heard in an impatient whisper bidding Grettel refrain from moving her head so that he could not see. But silence was immediately restored. Again Aladdin rubbed his lamp, and smiled upon his audience almost tauntingly. A third time he rubbed his lamp, this time with a stern, expectant expression in his eyes.
Said Truth to them: "The father and mother who would not share their last loaf of bread with their children nay, who would not deny themselves that their children need not go supperless to bed deserve not the love of children. They love themselves overmuch. But if at last in your hearts " The mother of Hansel and Grettel could not wait for the end of the sentence.
"At least," said Hansel, "I'd like to go home until that half a loaf is gone!" For a second Grettel looked at her brother as if she really could not think of a suitably severe rebuke. "Our poor father and mother!" she exclaimed. "No doubt they thought we should find food in the forest, or that we should encounter travelers who'd have a bite to spare."
To which the wife nodded once for each word. Whereupon Hansel and Grettel ran swiftly to their parents, who made a way for them to pass behind the curtain, and they all disappeared. And now Truth was crying out, "Mother of Cinderella, appear!"
She was really startled when Hansel, in his most offensive voice, exclaimed "Grettel! Don't you know you're not allowed to sit on the ground in your best dress?" But she managed to say, with a certain amount of independence, "Oh, Hansel as if anything mattered now! Don't you see that if we're not going back we'll have to make rules for ourselves from now on?
"Not to have them listen when you speak, as if you were in the way . . ." Cinderella gazed at him darkly. "Child, what do you know of such things?" she demanded. Everychild answered simply, "Our mothers were like that too. I know what it means." Cinderella said, "Your mothers?" "First it was just me," explained Everychild. "And then it was Hansel and Grettel."
But she quickly turned an untroubled face to Jack, who was saying: "There's the way I got old Blunderbore, for example. You've heard about that, haven't you?" And he looked anxiously at all three, one after another. Everychild and Hansel looked at each other dubiously, but Grettel saved the situation by saying, "It was rather a long time ago. If you'd just go over it again . . ."
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