Story Hour Readers — Book Three

								

Then the witch put Hansel into a cage. She brought from the cottage a
basket of sugar plums, candies, and nuts. She gave him the sweets to
eat.
"You will soon be fat enough to cook," she muttered. "I will bake the
girl first."
Grasping the little girl's arm, she shook her roughly, saying, "Go into
the house and set the table while I build a fire."
The old witch gathered some wood. As she threw it upon the fire, she
said, "Now for a ride through the air on my broom, while the oven is
heating!"
Astride her big broom, the witch rode high above the cottage. She
circled around like a huge bird, over the trees and back again, while
she sang a strange song.
Hansel, shut up in the cage, watched her in terror.
At last the witch flew down to the ground, on her broom. She alighted
close beside the oven, which stood in the front yard.
Calling the little girl out of the house she said, "Open the oven door.
Then creep inside and see if it is hot enough to bake the bread."
But Gretel guessed that the witch meant to shut the door upon her, so
she said, "I am afraid to creep into the oven."
"Silly child!" said the witch. "The door is wide enough. Why, even I
could pass through!"
As she spoke, she popped her head into the oven.
Gretel sprang toward her and shut the oven door. That was the end of the
old witch!
Then Gretel ran and unfastened the door of the cage.
"We are saved, Hansel!" she exclaimed. Then she danced about, singing
merrily,


"First your foot you tap, tap, tap,
Then your hands you clap, clap, clap;
Right foot first, left foot then,
Round about and back again."
Then, taking the Elder Bush, Gretel waved it above her head as the witch
had done.
Instantly the candy house became a log cabin. Sunflowers and
morning-glories were growing in the front yard, where the witch's cage
and the oven had stood.
Soon voices were heard. The sounds came nearer, and the father and
mother clasped their children in their arms.
Peter and Gertrude lived with the two children in the log cabin in the
forest, for many happy years. And the fairies always took good care of
both Hansel and Gretel.

THE EAGLE AND THE FOX

One morning the fox said to his children, "I will find some eggs for
breakfast."
Then he went to the woods.
The fox saw an eagle's nest in the top branch of a tree. "How can I
reach those eggs?" thought he. "Ha, ha! Now I have a plan."
He put some grass stalks into his ears and knocked on the tree with
them.
"Throw an egg to me," cried the fox. "If you do not throw an egg to me,
I will knock this great tree over with these grass stalks."
The eagle was terribly frightened, and she threw an egg down to the fox.
"Throw another egg down to me at once," demanded the fox, when he saw
that he had frightened the eagle.
"One egg is enough," said the eagle. "I shall not throw down any more
eggs."
"Throw another egg to me, or I shall knock the tree over with these