Huey, Dewey, and Louie Meet the Witch is Volume 11 of Mickey's Young Readers Library. It is an adaptation of the folk tale The Witch starring Huey, Dewey, and Louie.
Summary[]
Huey, Dewey, and Louie go adventuring in a nearby forest and end up getting lost. While trying to decide what they should do (either find a place to sleep or something to eat), Huey sees a small bird in a tree and gives it their last piece of bread. Although Dewey and Louie are initially dismayed with their brother for giving up the bread, the bird thanks him, saying that he's actually a man who was turned into a bird by a witch who lives in a nearby cottage. The bird warns the triplets to stay away from the cottage and leaves. Then Dewey sees a tired-looking horse and gives it their last carrot, and Louie gives their last soup bone to a dog. The horse and the dog, it turns out, are also victims of the witch's spell too, and they warn the triplets to stay away from the witch.
Huey, Dewey, and Louie then smell a delicious scent coming from the witch's cottage. Forgetting the warnings of the cursed animals, they head right up to the cottage, and the witch (who resembles Witch Hazel) allows them in to have her homemade soup and stay over for the night if they can each do chores for her the next day. The next morning, she gives them their assignments, each with their own catch - Huey has to fill a basket with apples from three large trees, Louie has to dig a swimming hole using a spoon, and Dewey has to fill the swimming hole using a teacup. The boys lament that they can't do these jobs, but the witch tells them that if they don't finish the work by dark, she'll turn them into sheep. Fortunately for the boys, the bird, the dog, and the horse show up to assist them in their jobs. After the apple basket and the swimming hole are filled, the animals tell the nephews that they need to take the witch's wand and break it in two so that their curses will be broken.
When the witch wakes up from her nap and finds that the boys finished their chores even faster than she expected, she decides to turn them into sheep anyway, but to her dismay, she finds that her wand is gone. Running through the forest, she demands the bird, the dog, and the horse to help her find the boys, but they refuse to help her because she was not kind to them. She then goes flying through the forest on her broomstick, but is too late to stop Louie from breaking her wand. The witch loses her magic, and the bird, the dog, and the horse are returned to their human forms. After the three men thank Huey, Dewey, and Louie for helping them, the witch complains that she has nothing to do without her magic. When the witch admits that the delicious soup she gave them yesterday was actually a recipe she learned from her grandmother, the boys then help her open a restaurant.
Notes[]
- Although this book was published after DuckTales established the nephews' color scheme, Huey (who wears red) is wearing yellow, and Louie (who is usually depicted in green) is wearing red.