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-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 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-Cap 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-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," said he.
"Thank
you kindly, wolf."
"Whither
away so early, Little Red-Cap?"
"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-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.
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-Cap, and then he said, "See Little Red-Cap, 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-Cap 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-Cap," 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 flew 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-Cap, 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 Red-Cap.
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 thee here, thou old
sinner!" said he. "I have long sought thee!" 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-Cap 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. Red-Cap,
however, quickly fetched great stones with which they filled the wolf's body,
and when he awoke, he wanted to run away, but the stones were so heavy that he
fell down 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-Cap had
brought, and revived, but Red-Cap 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 Red-Cap was again taking cakes to the old
grandmother, another wolf spoke to her, and tried to entice her from the path.
Red-Cap, 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-Cap, and am fetching 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 Red-Cap 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, Red-Cap; I made some sausages yesterday, so carry the
water in which I boiled them to the trough." Red-Cap 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 Red-Cap went
joyously home, and never did anything to harm any one.
