When the king saw him, he said to his huntsmen, “Now chase him all day long, till you catch him; but let none of you do him any harm.” The sun set, however, without their being able to overtake him, and the king called away the huntsmen, and said to the one who had watched, “Now come and show me the little hut.” So they went to the door and tapped, and said, “Sister, sister, let me in!” Then the door opened, and the king went in, and there stood a maiden more lovely than any he had ever seen.
Grethel was frightened to see that it was not her fawn, but a king with a golden crown that was come into her hut: however, he spoke kindly to her, and took her hand, and said, “Will you come with me to my castle, and be my wife?” “Yes,” said the maiden, “I will go to your castle, but I cannot be your wife; and my fawn must go with me, I cannot part with that.” “Well,” said the king, “he shall come and live with you all your life, and want for nothing.” Just then in sprang the little fawn; and his sister tied the string to his neck, and they left the hut in the wood together.
Then the king took Grethel to his palace, and on the way she told him all her story: and then he sent for the fairy, and made her change the fawn into Hansel again; and he and Grethel loved one another, and were married, and lived happily together all their days in the good king’s palace.
The story of Hansel and Grethel was liked as well as any one that could be told and the German Fairy was very proud of this, so much so that she began to declare that the part of the world which she came from was one far richer than any other in such stories, and implied that she was quite ready to tell them all if King Oberon liked, but the king did not take the hint but instead thanked the German Fairy, and at once began to look around for the next tale-teller when Puck came flying up and in a privileged fashion whispered in the ear of the Fairy King.
“Capital,” exclaimed Oberon, “Bottom and his friends must know some stories and one of them shall be next.”
Off Puck went, and then there was such a shuffling of feet and nudging of elbows where Nick Bottom the weaver sat with Quince, Snug, Flute, Snout and Starveling, his companions.
“You first, bully Bottom,” says Snout, and “You first, Peter Quince,” says Nick Bottom, and “You first, Robin Starveling,” “You first, Flute,” comes from the others.
Puck would not wait for the dispute as to precedence to be settled but just laid hold of Robin Starveling the tailor by the ear and willy-nilly off he had to go. On getting to the stool, like a sensible fellow, he began at once without any excuses by telling another story of the Irish fairies, and his story was called