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Once upon a time
there was a dear little girl who was loved by every one who looked
at her, but most of all by her grandmother, and there was nothing
she would not have given to the child. Once she gave her a little
cap of red velvet, which suited her so well that she would never
wear anything else, so she was always called "Little Red-Cap."
One day her mother said to her, "Come little Red-Cap, here is a
piece of cake and a bottle of wine; take them to your grandmother,
she is ill and weak, and they will do her good. Set out before it
gets hot, and when you are going, walk nicely and quietly and do not
run off the path, or you may fall and break the bottle, and then
your grandmother will get nothing; and when you go into her room,
don't forget to say, 'Good-morning,' and don't peep into every
corner before you do it."
"I will take great care," said little Red-Cap to her mother, and
gave her hand on it.
The grandmother lived out in the wood, half a league from the
village, and just as little Red-Cap entered the wood, a wolf met
her. Red-Cap did not know what a wicked creature he was, and was not
at all afraid of him.
"Good-day, little Red-Cap," said he.
"Thank you kindly, wolf."
"Whither away so early, Little Red-Cap?"
"To my grandmother's."
"What have you in your basket?"
"Cake and wine; yesterday was baking-day, so poor sick grandmother
is to have something good, to make her stronger."
"Where does your grandmother live, Little Red-Cap?"
"A good quarter of a league farther on in the wood; the house stands
under the three large oak-trees, the nut trees are just below; you
surely must know it," replied Little Red-Cap.
The wolf thought to himself, "What a tender young creature? What a
nice plump mouthful; she will be better to eat than the old woman. I
must act craftily, so as to catch both." So walking for a short time
by the side of Little Red-Cap, he said, "See, Little Red-Cap, how
pretty the flowers are about here—why do you not look round? I
believe too, you do not hear how sweetly the birds are singing, you
walk gravely along as if you were going to school, while every thing
else out here in the wood is merry."
Little Red-Cap raised her eyes, and when she saw the sunbeams
dancing here and there through the trees, and pretty flowers growing
everywhere, she thought, "Suppose I take grandmother a fresh
nosegay, that would please her too. It is so early in the day, that
I shall still get there in good time; and so she ran from the path
into the wood to look for flowers. And whenever site had picked one,
she fancied that she saw a still prettier one farther on, and ran
after it, and so got deeper and deeper into the wood.
Meanwhile the wolf ran straight to the grandmother's house, and
knocked at the door.
"Who is there?"
"Little Red-Cap," replied the wolf. "She is, bringing cake and wine;
open the door."
"Lift the latch and walk in," called the grandmother, "I am too
weak, and cannot get up."
The wolf lifted the latch, the door flew open, and without saying a
word, he went straight to the grandmother's bed, and devoured har.
Then he put on her clothes, dressed himself in her cap, laid himself
in bed, and drew the curtains.
Little Red-Cap, however, had been running about picking flowers, and
when she had gathered so many that she could carry no more, she
remembered her grandmother, and set out on her way to her.
She was surprised to find the cottage door standing open, and when
she went into the room, she had such a strange feeling that she said
to herself, "Oh dear! how uneasy I feel to-day, and at other times I
like being with grandmother so much." She called out "Good-morning,"
but received no answer; so she went to the bed and drew back the
curtains. There lay her grandmother with her cap pulled over her
face, and looking very strange.
"Oh! grandmother," She said, "what big ears you have!"
"The better to hear you with my child," was the reply.
"But grandmother, what big eyes you have ! " she said.
"The better to see you with, any dear."
"But, grandmother, what large hands you have!"
"The better to hug you with."
"Oh ! but, grandmother, what a terrible big mouth you have!"
"The better to eat you with!"
And scarcely had the wolf said this, than with one bound, he was out
of bed and swallowed up Red-Cap.
When the wolf had appeased his appetite, he lay down again in bed,
fell asleep and began to snore very loud.
The huntsman was just passing the house, and thought to himself,
"How the old woman is snoring; I must just see if she wants
anything." So he went into the room, and when he came to the bed, he
saw that the wolf was lying on it. "Do I find thee here, thou old
sinner!" said he. "I have long sought thee!" Then just as he was
going to fire at him, it occurred to him that the wolf might have
devoured the grandmother, and that she still might be saved, so he
did not fire but took a pair of scissors, and began to cut open the
stomach of the sleeping wolf. When he had made two snips, he saw the
Little Red-Cap shining, and then he made two snips more, and the
little girl sprang out crying, "Ah, how frightened I have been! How
dark it was inside the wolf;" and after that the aged grandmother
came out also, but scarcely able to breathe.
Then all three were delighted. The huntsman drew off the wolf's skin
and went home with it; the grandmother ate the cake, and drank the
wine which Red-Cap had brought, and revived, but Red-Cap thought to
her self, "As long as I live, I will never by myself leave the path,
to run into the wood, when my mother has forbidden me to do so."
Little Red Riding Hood
A Fictional Short Story by
Agnes Taylor Ketchum & Ida M. Jorgensen
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