Страшные сказки / Scary stories

“But now we must go away”, said Hansel, “to get out of the witch’s forest”.

They walked for two hours, and they came to a great stretch of water.

“We cannot cross it”, said Hansel, “I see no plank, and no bridge”.

“And there is also no ferry”, answered Gretel, “but I see a white duck. I ask it, and it will help us”.

Then Gretel cried:

�Little duck, little duck, do you see,

Hansel and Gretel are here?

There’s not a plank, or bridge in sight,

Take us across on your back so white.

’

The duck came to them, and Hansel seated himself on its back, and told his sister to sit by him.

“No”, replied Gretel, “that will be too heavy for the little duck. The duck will take us across, one after the other”.

The good little duck did so, and when they were once safely across and walked for a short time, the forest was more and more familiar to them. At length[9 - at length – наконец] they saw from afar their father’s house. Then they began to run, rushed into the parlour, and threw themselves round their father’s neck.

The man was very happy to see them again. The stepwoman, however, was dead. Gretel emptied her pinafore until pearls and precious stones ran about the room. Hansel threw one handful after another out of his pocket to add to them. Then they lived together in perfect happiness.

The Girl without Hands

Brothers Grimm

A certain miller was very poor, and had nothing but his mill and a large apple-tree behind it.

Once when he went into the forest to fetch wood, an old man stepped up to him, and said,

“Why do you plague yourself with this wood? I will make you rich, if you promise me what is behind your mill”.

“What can that be? It’s my apple-tree”, thought the miller, and said, “Yes”.

So he gave a promise to the stranger. The old man, however, laughed mockingly and said,

“When three years pass, I will come and carry away what belongs to me”, and then he went.

When the miller got home, his wife came to meet him and said,

“Tell me, miller, from whence comes this sudden wealth into our house? All at once every box and chest was filled! No one brought it in, and I don’t know how it happened”.

He answered,

“It comes from a stranger who met me in the forest, and promised me great treasure. I, in return, promised him what stands behind the mill. We can very well give him the big apple-tree for it”.