Grimms' Fairy Tales

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opened it and saw that it was Hansel and Gretel, she said: 'You naughty
children, why have you slept so long in the forest?--we thought you were
never coming back at all!' The father, however, rejoiced, for it had cut
him to the heart to leave them behind alone.

Not long afterwards, there was once more great dearth throughout the
land, and the children heard their mother saying at night to their
father: 'Everything is eaten again, we have one half loaf left, and that
is the end. The children must go, we will take them farther into the
wood, so that they will not find their way out again; there is no other
means of saving ourselves!' The man's heart was heavy, and he thought:
'It would be better for you to share the last mouthful with your
children.' The woman, however, would listen to nothing that he had to
say, but scolded and reproached him. He who says A must say B, likewise,
and as he had yielded the first time, he had to do so a second time
also.