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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 that 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 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.
Little 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. And 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 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 far 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, my 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 Little 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."
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 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."
And after that the aged grandmother came out alive also, but scarcely
able to breathe. Little 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
Little Red Riding Hood had brought, and revived, but Little Red Riding
Hood thought to herself, 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.
It is also related that once when Little Red Riding Hood was again
taking cakes to the old grandmother, another wolf spoke to her, and
tried to entice her from the path. Little Red Riding Hood, however, was
on her guard, and went straight forward on her way, and told her
grandmother that she had met the wolf, and that he had said good-morning
to her, but with such a wicked look in his eyes, that if they had not
been on the public road she was certain he would have eaten her up.
"Well," said the grandmother, "we will shut the door, that he may not
come in."
Soon afterwards the wolf knocked, and cried, "open the door,
grandmother, I am Little Red Riding Hood, and am bringing you some
cakes."
But they did not speak, or open the door, so the grey-beard stole twice
or thrice round the house, and at last jumped on the roof, intending to
wait until Little Red Riding Hood went home in the evening, and then to
steal after her and devour her in the darkness. But the grandmother saw
what was in his thoughts. In front of the house was a great stone
trough, so she said to the child, take the pail, Little Red Riding Hood.
I made some sausages yesterday, so carry the water in which I boiled
them to the trough. Little Red Riding Hood carried until the great
trough was quite full. Then the smell of the sausages reached the wolf,
and he sniffed and peeped down, and at last stretched out his neck so
far that he could no longer keep his footing and began to slip, and
slipped down from the roof straight into the great trough, and was
drowned. But Little Red Riding Hood went joyously home, and no one ever
did anything to harm her again.
*English
translation by Margaret Hunt
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