Once upon a time there lived a family, a father, a mother, a son and a daughter.  The father’s name was Ansel and he was a carpenter by trait.  The mother’s name was Gerta and she did her best to provide and keep house.  The children’s names were Jakob and Marta.  Jakob was ten while Marta was eight.  The family loved each other and was very happy until Jakob and Marta noticed that their parents weren’t eating anything and the food seem scarce.  That was when Jakob and Marta decided to run away.

“Mother, Jakob and I are going to go pick some berries,” Marta said as she grabbed her basket.

“Be careful, my dearest and don’t stray from the path.  The Black Forest is a dangerous place,” Gerta tells her daughter as she boils water over the hearth.

“I won’t mother, I love you,” Marta says as she gives her mother a hug.

“What’s this,” Gerta said with a smile and returned the embrace.  Marta hated having to lie to her mother but she had no choice.  “I’m serious, my child.  Many wild and bad creatures live in that forest.  Some say that it’s enchanted.  I don’t want you getting lost.”

“I’ll be careful, mother.  Jakob is coming with me, to protect me,” Marta told her mother and kissed her cheek.

Jakob packed his knife and his slingshot in his knapsack with what little bread he could find, he even filled two canteens with water and off towards the Black Forest the two siblings went.

Jakob and Marta went against their mother’s wishes and strayed from the path.  It wasn’t long before the two were lost in the Black Forest.  Both were starving and cold.  Jakob went hunting while Marta built a fire with what twigs and branches she could find.  The fire lit easy for Marta, almost too easy from the slate she had found.  The fire burned perfect.

Jakob returned with a hare the size of a very large dog.  Marta was shocked by the size of the animal.  This forest truly was enchanted.  Jakob and Marta ate their fill and still had plenty left.

“Look at these berries I found,” Marta showed Jakob the largest blackberries the children have ever seen.

“I found a stream close by.  The water is as clear as the Queen’s diamonds and taste as fresh as spring.  I filled our canteens and tomorrow we can bathe in its freshness,” Jakob said.

“This shall be the perfect place to make our home, Jakob.  I didn’t like leaving mother and father,” Marta sobbed as she thought of her parents.

“This is for the best.  Mother and father couldn’t afford to take care of us anymore.  Father has taught me his trait and I brought my tools.  Tomorrow we will make plans for a cabin.  Maybe someday we will go back and share our bounty with them,” Jakob said with hope in his heart…

The following morning, Jakob and Marta bathed in the stream.  They drank of its waters and feed on the hare and blackberries.  Jakob and Marta did this daily as Jakob worked on the cabin.  The two out grew their clothes and made garments from animal hides until Jakob made Marta a spinning wheel and loom.  Marta learned how to make garments from her mother and had become quite good at it.  Jakob and Marta grew up together and on their own, enjoying the bounties the Black Forest brought them.

The cabin was a grand place with a great stone hearth and grand garden were Jakob and Marta worked daily.  Marta grew up into a fair beauty with eyes as blue as the seas while Jakob grew into a tall and slender lad.  Jakob and Marta never ventured out of the Black Forest in the ten years they lived there although that hare that lasted them for a week when they first came to the forest is now one meal between the two.

One morning, Marta went to the stream for her bath when all the sudden she spotted a small form on the other side of the water.  The form looked like that of a man passed out from exhaustion.  Marta did not know what to do since she had not seen another human in ten years other than Jakob.  Marta thought for a moment and then decided that the right thing to do would be to help this man.

Marta crossed the large stones to the other side of the stream, careful not to soak the hem of her silken gown.  The man lay on his stomach.  Marta walked up to the man surprised at how small he seemed.  He looked no bigger than she was to her parents when she left them all those years ago.  Marta could see that the man was still breathing.  She turned him over and gasped at the sight of his face.  It was her father, Ansel… 

Marta skipped her bath and decided to bring Ansel back to the cabin where she could nurse him.  Marta carried Ansel like a babe since Ansel was so much smaller to her now.  Marta laid him down on the bed of animal hides and nursed his wounds.  Ansel had been cut by the briar berry bushes and was still unconscious.

Jakob entered the cabin noticing that his sister seemed to be nursing some wounded small animal again.  Jakob gasped when he noticed that it wasn’t an animal but his own father whom Jakob used to look up to.  Now he appeared no bigger than a babe.

“It that father?” Jakob asked his sister and Marta nodded.  “What happened to him?”

“I don’t think anything has happened to him, dear brother.  I suspect that the forest has enchanted us,” Marta answered.

“How?”

“Do you remember how big everything was when we first came to this place?  The trees were taller and the hares seemed to be the size of large dogs and one blackberries was the size of our hands.  It is not like that anymore for us.  The forest has somehow made us into…giants,” Marta could barely say the last word.

Tears fell from Marta’s eyes when she realized this.  Jakob embraced his normal size sister…