Once upon a time there was a dear little
girl who was loved by everyone who looked at her, but most of all by her
grandmother, and there was nothing that she would not have given to the child.
Once she gave her a little riding hood of red velvet, which suited her so well that
she would never wear anything else; so she was always called 'Little Red Riding
Hood.'
One day her
mother said to her: 'Come, Little Red Riding Hood, 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 Riding Hood 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
Riding Hood entered the wood, a wolf met her. Red Riding Hood did not know what
a wicked creature he was, and was not at all afraid of him.
'Good day, Little
Red Riding Hood,' said he.
'Thank you
kindly, wolf.'
'Whither away so
early, Little Red Riding Hood?'
'To my
grandmother's.'
'What have you
got in your apron?'
'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 Riding Hood?'
'A good quarter
of a league farther on in the wood; her house stands under the three large
oak-trees, the nut-trees are just below; you surely must know it,' replied
Little Red Riding Hood.
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 he walked for
a short time by the side of Little Red Riding Hood, and then he said: 'See,
Little Red Riding Hood, how pretty the flowers are about here - why do you not
look round? I believe, too, that you do not hear how sweetly the little birds
are singing; you walk gravely along as if you were going to school, while
everything else out here in the wood is merry.'
Little Red Riding
Hood 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.'
So she ran from
the path into the wood to look for flowers. And whenever she 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
Riding Hood,' replied the wolf. 'She is bringing cake and wine; open the door.'
'Lift the latch,'
called out the grandmother, 'I am too weak, and cannot get up.'
The wolf lifted
the latch, the door sprang open, and without saying a word he went straight to
the grandmother's bed, and devoured her. Then he put on her clothes, dressed
himself in her cap, laid himself in bed and drew the curtains.
Little Red Riding
Hood, 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 the 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 today, 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 far over
her face, and looking very strange.
'Oh!
grandmother,' she said, 'what big ears you have!'
'All the better
to hear you with, my child,' was the reply.
'But,
grandmother, what big eyes you have!' she said.
'All the better
to see you with, my dear.'
'But,
grandmother, what large hands you have!'
'All the better
to hug you with.'
'Oh! but,
grandmother, what a terrible big mouth you have!'
'All 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
Riding Hood.
When the wolf had
appeased his appetite, he lay down again in the 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 in it.
'Do I find you
here, you old sinner!' said he. 'I have long sought you!' But just as he was
going to fire at him, it occurred to him that the wolf might have devoured the
grandmother, and that she might still 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 riding hood 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.'
After that the
aged grandmother came out alive also, but scarcely able to breathe. Red Riding
Hood, however, quickly fetched great stones with which they filled the wolf's
belly, and when he awoke, he wanted to run away, but the stones were so heavy
that he collapsed at once, and fell dead.
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 Riding Hood had
brought, and revived.
Source: http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/LittRed.shtml
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