Hansel ran nimbly about, and as she was trying to catch him, the mother upset a jug of milk. It was all the food there was in the house.
"Oh, mother!" cried Gretel. "You have spilled the milk, and we shall have nothing to eat."
"Go out into the woods and gather some strawberries. Do not return until you have filled the basket to the brim," commanded the mother. "Hansel, help your sister pick the berries, and hurry back, both of you, for there is nothing else for supper."
Towards evening the father returned from the village.
"Ho, ho, good wife!" called Peter. "I have had great luck to-day, and have sold all my brooms. Now for a good supper! See here--bread and butter, some potatoes, ham and eggs. But where are the children?"
"They have gone to the woods to gather strawberries," replied Gertrude.
"It is growing dark. Hansel and Gretel should have been here long ago," said Peter anxiously.
The wife began to prepare supper. The husband went to the door of the cottage and looked out into the darkness.
"Alas, my children!" cried Peter. "I fear that the terrible Witch of the Forest may find them, and that we shall never see them again!"
Meanwhile Hansel and Gretel had filled the basket with strawberries, and then had wandered into the forest. They sat down upon a mossy bank under a fir tree, to rest.