So when noon came Grethel shared her bread with Hansel, who had strewed his along the road. Then they went to sleep, and the evening passed, and no one came for the poor children. When they awoke it was dark night, and Hansel comforted his little sister, and said, "Wait a little, Grethel, until the moon gets up, then we shall be able to see the way home by the crumbs of bread that I have scattered along it."

So when the moon rose they got up, but they could find no crumbs of bread, for the birds of the woods and of the fields had come and picked them up. Hansel thought they might find the way all the same, but they could not. They went on all that night, and the next day from the morning until the evening, but they could not find the way out of the wood, and they were very hungry, for they had nothing to eat but the few berries they could pick up. And when they were so tired that they could no longer drag themselves along, they lay down under a tree and fell asleep.

It was now the third morning since they had left their father's house. They were always trying to get back to it, but instead of that they only found themselves farther in the wood, and if help had not soon come they would have been starved.

到了中午，格莱特把她的面包与汉赛尔分来吃了，因为汉赛尔的面包已经撒在路上了。 然后，他们俩又睡着了。 一直到了半夜，仍然没有人来接这两个可怜的孩子，他们醒来已是一片漆黑。汉赛尔安慰他的妹妹说："等月亮一出来，我们就看得见我撒在地上的面包屑了，它一定会指给我们回家的路。"
但是当月亮升起来时，他们在地上却怎么也找不到一点面包屑了，原来它们都被那些在树林里、田野上飞来飞去的鸟儿一点点地啄食了。
虽然汉赛尔也有些着急了，但他还是安慰妹妹说："我们一定能找到路的，格莱特。"
但他们没有能够找到路，虽然他们走了一天一夜，可就是出不了森林。他们已经饿得头昏眼花，因为除了从地上找到的几颗草霉，他们没吃什么东西。这时他们累得连脚都迈不动了，倒在一颗树下就睡着了。
这已是他们离开父亲家的第三天早晨了，他们深陷丛林，已经迷路了。如果再不能得到帮助，他们必死无疑。