Little Red Riding the Hood
Once upon a time there was a sweet little girl. Everyone who
saw her liked her, but most of all her grandmother, who did not know what to
give the child next. Once she gave her a little cap made of red velvet. Because
it suited her so well, and she wanted to wear it all the time, she came to be
known as 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 sick and weak, and they will do her well. Mind your
manners and give her my greetings. Behave yourself on the way, and do not leave
the path, or you might fall down and break the glass, and then there will be
nothing for your sick grandmother."
Little Red Riding Hood opened her eyes and saw the sunlight
breaking through the trees and how the ground was covered with beautiful
flowers. She thought: "If a take a bouquet to grandmother, she will be
very pleased. Anyway, it is still early, and I'll be home on time." And
she ran off into the woods looking for flowers. Each time she picked one she
thought that she could see an even more beautiful one a little way off, and she
ran after it, going further and further into the woods. But the wolf ran
straight to the grandmother's house and knocked on the door. "Who's
there?" - "Little Red Riding Hood. I'm bringing you some cake and
wine. Open the door for me." - "Just press the latch," called
out the grandmother. "I'm too weak to get up." The wolf pressed the
latch, and the door opened. He stepped inside, went straight to the
grandmother's bed, and ate her up. Then he took her clothes, put them on, and
put her cap on his head. He got into her bed and pulled the curtains shut.
Little Red Riding Hood had run after flowers, and did not
continue on her way to grandmother's until she had gathered all that she could
carry. When she arrived, she found, to her surprise, that the door was open.
She walked into the parlor, and everything looked so strange that she thought:
"Oh, my God, why am I so afraid? I usually like it at grandmother's."
Then she went to the bed and pulled back the curtains. Grandmother was lying
there with her cap pulled down over her face and looking very strange.
"Oh, grandmother, what big ears you have!" - "All the better to
hear you with." - "Oh, grandmother, what big eyes you have!" -
"All the better to see you with." - "Oh, grandmother, what big
hands you have!" - "All the better to grab you with!" -
"Oh, grandmother, what a horribly big mouth you have!" - "All
the better to eat you with!" And with that he jumped out of bed, jumped on
top of poor Little Red Riding Hood, and ate her up.