Once in a town somewhere there was a married couple. They had a boy and a girl. The girl was nine years old and the boy was five. That married couple lived very happily. They got along with each other very well. But the woman had an illness and died and the man was left with the two children, the girl and the boy. Well, the children went to school and the father took good care of them. He fed them, he took care of their needs, he sent them to school, he combed their hair.
Well one day the children's teacher fell in love with their father and gave caramels to the children. She gave them good things. The girl said, "Father, look, you have to marry our teacher. She gives us bread and honey [pan y miel]." But their father replied, "Oh my daughter, some day she'll give you bread and bile [pan y hiel]. Bad things." Every day the children said, "Father, you have to marry our teacher. She gives us bread and honey." He said, "Oh my children, some day you will suffer bread and bile." Well, they insisted so much that the father fell in love with the teacher and they were married.
On the second night, when the father and the teacher were having supper after the boy and girl were in bed, the teacher said to her husband, "Look, I'm going to tell you for the first time that those children have to disappear from the house. You have to take them to the forest." The children were in bed and heard everything. The girl, who was a little smarter, went about the house and found a little sack of flour. She put a little bit of the flour into her pockets. The father got them up at three in the morning. "Father, where are you taking us?" the girl asked. "Look daughter, we're going to a wedding and I'm going to take you to be with your aunt for a few days," replied the father. Well, that's how he tricked them. But the girl, who was the smarter because she was nine years old going on ten, took the flour. They went down the road, and the girl left a little trail of flour whenever she felt like it. The father came to a great big forest where he left the boy and the girl. He said, "Look daughter, stay here. I'm going to prepare a load of firewood. I'll come back and you'll go with me. We'll look for your aunt." Then the father left, and the girl picked up the trail of flour. Plam, plam, plam, plam.
They came home and hid in a little corner of the kitchen. The teacher and their father were eating supper. A little of their supper was left over and the teacher said, "Look here, if your little children were here, they could eat this." The father declared, "We can go call them." But the teacher protested, "No, no, no, don't call them." The children said to each other, "We're here and they don't want to give us any supper." They came out of their hiding place and said, "You won't give any to us!" They were dying of hunger and they ate what was left over.
Well they went to bed and the teacher said again, "Look, today they came home. Tomorrow you have to take them to another forest much thicker than the last one. Don't let them come back. I don't want to see them in this house." Then the girl, who was smart, went into the house and found a sack of figs. She filled her little pockets with figs and dropped them along the road. "Father where do you take us? Once you told us our mother would give us bread and bile," said the little girl. "No daughter, no. Yes, your mother loves you a lot. Your mother adores you. Let's go to town. We're going to a wedding," replied the father. "Well fine," agreed the girl. The father took them to a much thicker forest and told them, "Well you stay here. I'm going to talk to your aunt so we can all be there. You'll see." He went down the road and headed home. The girl picked up the trail of figs, and the children went home again. They hid in the same place in the kitchen. The father and stepmother were having supper and a little was left over again. The woman said to the man, "Look here, if your little children were here, they could eat this. Well you should fetch them. You can give it to them." The girl said to the boy, "Here we are and they do not want to give us any supper." They came out again and ate it. When they were in bed, the woman said, "Look, this is the last time. If you bring the children home again, you will be the first one I'll poison and kill. Make sure you take them far away from here. Don't let them return again."
Of course the poor little girl went about the house because the girl always listened to what the woman said. She didn't find anything besides a sack of wheat. She put the wheat into her pockets and spread it to leave signs for finding the way home again. But the birds ate the wheat and left the road clean behind them. The children went into the forest and their father told them the same things as before. He told them to stay put and he tried to trick them by saying he was going on the same errand. But he didn't fool the girl. The children followed him after he left, but they lost the trail. They couldn't find their way home because the birds had eaten the wheat.
Now they were lost. They walked from one place to the next in the forest. They walked and they walked and spotted a light from a house in the distance. "Father must be looking for us. That light, let's see what it is," one of the children said. They were dying of hunger when they got to the house. The outside walls were entirely of caramels and other good things to eat. Sweet things. It was a house of candy. They followed along the walls eating the candy and a witch came out. "Who is licking my wall?" she asked. She saw the two children and said, "Oh but what are you doing here children?" "Eating," they said. "Come in, come inside," she told them. She had
the girl sweep, wash and help clean the house. She put the boy, who was thin, into a room so small that he almost didn't fit inside. She gave him chickens to fatten him up. Every day a chicken, every day a chicken, every day a chicken.
The day came when the old woman said, "This boy doesn't get fat. He isn't getting fat at all. Well tomorrow I'm going to tell him to show me his hand. Let's see what is going on." When she took him something to eat, she said, "Boy, show me your hand." But he showed her a chicken's claw instead. "Oh, how thin you are!" the old woman exclaimed. "With all you eat, you're so thin!" She went upstairs saying, "Well no matter what, I'm going to bake him in the oven tomorrow." The sister went down and told her brother, "Look, tomorrow you're going to be baked in the oven." The boy was nice and fat by this time. The sister continued, "Look, the old woman is going to light the oven. When she calls the two of us to go to the oven and tells you to blow, tell her you don't know how. Tell her to blow first. She'll insist that she doesn't know how, but you tell her that you don't know how either."
The old woman lit the oven, removed the boy, and said, "Oh, what a tasty morsel. How you fooled me." When she arrived at the door of the oven she said, "Blow son, blow. Blow son, blow." "No lady, I don't know how to blow. You blow so I can see how you do it," replied the boy. The old woman had to blow because the boy told her that he didn't know how. The children grabbed her and put her into the oven and they closed the oven door. Instead of baking the boy, they baked the old woman. That entire caramel house turned into gold.
The children went home and didn't recognize their parents. They asked, "Are you Fulano de Tal?" "Yes," replied the father. "Did you have a boy and girl whom you took to the forest?" they asked. And the woman, the stepmother, said, "Quiet! Quiet girl! I'm going to chase you far away from my house!" [She said that] because she didn't like what the girl might say. "Quiet, quiet girl, get away from my house. Don't let me see you." And the father said, "Yes, tell it all. Tell me how I'll know if you're my daughter and the boy is my son." The girl explained to him who they were. The father embraced her and, as for the woman, well he snatched a tool and cut off her head and hung her head above his bed. He slapped her head three times when he went to bed and three more times when he got up.