Once upon a time there lived a sweet little girl who was beloved by every one who saw her; but her grandmother was so excessively fond of her that she never knew when to give the child enough.
One day the grandmother presented the little girl with a red velvet riding hood; and as it fitted her very well, she would never wear any thing else; and so she was called Little Red Riding Hood. One day her mother said to her—“Come, Red Riding Hood, here is a piece of nice meat, and a bottle of wine: take these to your grandmother; she is ill and weak, and will relish them. Make haste before she gets up; go quietly and carefully; and do not run, lest you should fall and break the bottle; and then your grandmother will get nothing. When you go into her room do not forget to say, ‘Good-morning;’ and do not look about in all the corners.” “I will do every thing as you wish,” replied Red Riding Hood, taking her mother’s hand.
The grandmother dwelt far away in the wood, half an hour’s walk from the village, and as Little Red Riding Hood entered among the trees, she met a wolf; but she did not know what a malicious beast it was, and so she was not at all afraid. “Good-day, Little Red Riding Hood,” he said.
“Many thanks, Wolf,” said she.
“Whither away so early, Little Red Riding Hood?”
“To my grandmother’s,” she replied.
“What are you carrying under your apron?”
Little Red Riding Hood
“Meat and wine,” she answered. “Yesterday we baked the meat, that grandmother, who is ill and weak, might have something nice and strengthening.”
“Where does your grandmother live?” asked the Wolf.
“A good quarter of an hour’s walk further in the forest. The cottage stands under three great oak-trees; near it are some nut-bushes, by which you will easily know it.”
But the Wolf thought to himself, “She is a nice, tender thing, and will taste better than the old woman; I must act craftily, that I may snap them both up.”
Presently he came up again to Little Red Riding Hood, and said, “Just look at the beautiful flowers which grow around you; why do you not look about you? I believe you don’t hear how beautifully the birds sing. You walk on as if you were going to school; see how merry every thing is around you in the forest.”
So Little Red Riding Hood opened her eyes; and when she saw how the sunbeams glanced and danced through the trees, and what splendid flowers were blooming in her path, she thought, “If I take my grandmother a fresh nosegay she will be very pleased; and it is so very early that I can, even then, get there in good time;” and running into the forest she looked about for flowers. But, when she had once begun, she did not know how to leave off; and kept going deeper and deeper among the trees, in search of some more beautiful flower. The Wolf, however, ran straight to the house of the old grandmother, and knocked at the door.
“Who’s there?” asked the old lady.
“Only Little Red Riding Hood, bringing you some meat and wine: please open the door,” replied the Wolf.
“Lift up the latch,” cried the grandmother; “I am too weak to get up.”
So the Wolf lifted the latch, and the door flew open; and, jumping without a word on the bed, he gobbled up the poor old lady. Then he put on her clothes, and tied her cap over his head; got into the bed, and drew the blankets over him. All this time Red Riding Hood was still gathering flowers; and when she had plucked as many as she could carry, she remembered her grandmother, and made haste to the cottage. She wondered very much to see the door wide open: and when she got into the room, she began to feel very ill, and exclaimed, “How sad I feel! I wish I had not come to-day.” Then she said, “Good-morning,” but received no answer; so she went up to the bed, and drew back the curtains, and there lay her grandmother, as she thought, with the cap drawn half over her eyes, looking very fiercely.
“Oh! grandmother, what great ears you have!”
“The better to hear with,” was the reply.
“And what great eyes you have!”
“The better to see with.”
“And what great hands you have!”
“The better to touch you with.”
“But, grandmother, what great teeth you have!”
“The better to eat you with;” and scarcely were the words out of his mouth, when the Wolf made a spring out of bed, and swallowed up poor Little Red Riding Hood.
As soon as the Wolf had thus satisfied his appetite, he laid himself down again in the bed, and began to snore very loudly. A huntsman passing by overheard him, and thought, “How loudly the old woman snores; I must see if she wants any thing.”
So he stepped into the cottage; and when he came to the bed, he saw the Wolf lying in it. “What! Do I find you here, you old sinner? I have long sought you!” he exclaimed, taking aim with his gun. Then, just as he was about to fire, it occurred to him that the Wolf might have devoured the grandmother and that he might still save her. So instead of firing, he took a pair of scissors and began to cut open the belly of the sleeping Wolf. After two snips, he saw the little red riding hood, and after two more snips the little girl sprang out, crying: “Oh, how frightened I have been! It was so dark inside the Wolf!” And then the old grandmother came out, also alive, but scarcely able to breathe. Little Red Riding Hood ran outside and found some big stones, and they put them in the Wolf’s belly. When he woke up, he tried to run away, but the stones were so heavy that he collapsed and fell dead.
Then all three were happy. The huntsman skinned the Wolf and took the skin, the grandmother ate the cake and drank the wine Little Red Riding Hood had brought and felt better at once. As for Little Red Riding Hood, she said to herself, “I will never again leave the path and run into the woods when my mother has told me not to.”
Some folks say that this story is not the true one, but that one day, when Red Riding Hood was taking some baked meats to her grandmother’s, a Wolf met her, and wanted to lead her astray; but she went straight on, and told her grandmother that she had met a Wolf, who wished her good-day; but he looked so wickedly out of his great eyes, as if he would have eaten her had she not been on the high road.
So the grandmother said, “Let us shut the door, that he may not enter.”
Soon afterwards came the Wolf, who knocked, and exclaimed, “I am Red Riding Hood, grandmother; I bring you some roast meat.” But they kept quite still, and did not open the door; so the Wolf, creeping several times around the house, at last jumped on the roof, intending to wait till Red Riding Hood went home in the evening, and then to sneak after her and devour her in the darkness. The old woman, however, saw all that the rascal intended; and as there stood before the door a great stone trough, she said to Little Red Riding Hood, “Take this pail, child: yesterday I boiled some sausages in this water, so pour it into that stone trough.” Red Riding Hood poured many times, until the huge trough was quite full. Then the Wolf sniffed the smell of the sausages, and smacked his lips, and wished very much to taste; and at last he stretched his neck too far over, so that he lost his balance, and slipped quite off the roof, right into the great trough beneath, wherein he was drowned; and Little Red Riding Hood ran home in high glee, but no one sorrowed for Mr. Wolf!
