Little Red Riding Hood

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 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 go, 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 peek into every corner before you do it.”

“I will take great care,” said Little Red-Cap to her mother, and she sealed it with a handshake.

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,” he said.

“Thank you kindly, wolf.”

“Where are you going so early, Little Red-Cap?”

“To my grandmother’s.”

“What have you got in your bag?”

“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; her house stands under the three large oak trees, the nut trees are just below; you surely must know it,” replied Little Red-Cap.