Little Red Cap

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 was, however, 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 around 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 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 into the great though, and

was drowned. But Red-Cap went joyously home, and never did anything to harm

any one.