"We shall not be entirely disenchanted till you touch us," they told her, and then upon being touched by Gretel they opened their eyes like ten-day-old kittens. Then Haensel took a juniper branch and repeated what he had heard the witch say: Hocus pocus elder bush, Rigid body loosen, hush! and there came that gingerbread hedge, walking on legs,--the beautiful gingerbread falling all over the place, and the whole fence turning back into little children. At that very moment came the broom-maker and his wife, who had sought for the children till they had become nearly distracted. When the children saw them they ran into their mother's arms. All the gingerbread children were singing at the top of their voices and were carrying on in the most joyous way. Two boys had run to the broken oven, and had begun to drag out an immense gingerbread--it was the old witch, turned into the finest cake ever seen. It was well that she turned out to be good in the end, if only good gingerbread. They dragged her out where everybody could see her, and broke a piece of her off; and then they shoved her into the cottage. "Now, you see how good children are taken care of," the broom-maker sang; while everybody danced about the disenchanted Ilsenstein, before they went into the house for supper. MASCAGNI This composer is too contemporary to be discussed freely. He has done no great amount of work, and fame came to him in his youth. "Cavalleria Rusticana" is his supreme performance, and there is in it a promise of greater things. CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA[A] (Rustic Chivalry) CHARACTERS OF THE OPERA Santuzza. Lola. Turiddu. Alfio. Lucia. Peasants. The story is of peasant people in a small Sicilian village, on an Easter day. Composer: Pietro Mascagni. Authors: Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci. First sung at Rome, May 20, 1890. [Footnote A: The quotations from "Cavalleria Rusticana" are from the English version by Nathan Haskell Dole, Copyright, 1891, by G. Schirmer.] ACT I One fine Easter morning, in a small Italian village, a fop, named Turiddu, came along the little street singing of Lola, an old sweetheart, who, since Turiddu went to serve his required term in the army, had married a wagoner. Turiddu was far from heartbroken, because when he returned and first heard of Lola's faithlessness, he straightway fell in love with a worthier girl--Santuzza. Neither Lola nor Turiddu was a faithful sort, but lived for a good time to-day, leaving luck to look after to-morrow; but it was not the same with Santuzza. She truly loved Turiddu, and being an Italian peasant, very emotional and excitable, it was going to be dangerous for Turiddu to ill-treat her.