Little Red Riding Hood

    Once upon a time there lived a young girl who was loved by everyone who knew her; but she was especially dear to her grandmother who thought the world of the child. Now it happened that grandmother had made a riding cloak out of bright red cloth for the girl's birthday, and the cloak suited the child so well that she wore it every single day. Soon everyone in the village started calling her "Red Riding Hood".
    One day Red Riding Hood's mother said to her: "Come here, child, I have a task for you. Your grandmother is ill and I want you to take a cake and a pot of honey to her. She is so very fond of cake and honey! I know that she is really very poorly so hurry up child and, whatever you do, don't loiter on the way. Oh, by the way, when you get to grandmother's house, don't forget to say 'Good morning' to her, and do remember to ask her if she is feeling better."
    "Yes, yes, of course I'l do that," said Red Riding Hood, impatient to be on her way.
    Red Riding Hood was usually a good girl and, of course, she meant to obey her mother. But this time, as we shall see, she soon forgot her mother's good advice.
    Now it happened that grandmother lived right at the far end of the wood, a brisk half-hour's walk from the village. Soon after Red Riding Hood entered the wood and took the path leading to her grandmother's cottage she came face to face with a rascally, and very hungry, wolf.
    Red Riding Hood stopped and peered at him, and decided that he quite a harmless fellow really. He was, after all, just a wolf, and his sparkling yelow eyes looked friendly enough.
    "Good-Morning, Red Riding Hood," said the wolf patiently.
    "Good-Morning, wolf," she answered chirpily.
    "Well, well, well, and what a surprise to see you in the wood so early in the morning, Red Riding Hood. Surely it must be your breakfast time?" enquired the wolf slyly.
    Red Riding Hood nodded: "You see, dear wolf, my poor grandmother is sick, she is really very ill and I'm just going to see what I can do for her."
    "And what is that you are carrying in your basket, may I ask?" said the wolf casually.
    "Ah, you've no idea how delicious this food is," said Red Riding Hood, holding out the basket to show him. "Look, mother baked this tasty fruit cake herself and the honey comes from our neighbour."
    The wolf licked his lips: "Tell me, dear, does your grandmother live far away?"
    "Oh yes, her house is on the other side of the wood, down by the stream and over the little wooden bridge," Red Riding Hood explained, pointing in the direction of her grandmother's house.
    "Is that so," the wolf murmured, scratching his ear with a paw. Then he turned to Red Riding Hood: "I should so much like to visit your dear grandmother and bring her some words of comfort. Now, suppose I cut through the wood an you just continue along the path carefully and we'll see which of us gets there first."
    "What a splendid idea!" cried Red Riding Hood, clapping her hands in delight.
    In a flash he was off, runnning as hard as he could, right through the middle of the wood. Red Riding Hood continued to walk along the path and soon she found herself approaching a bank of flowers. The sight of such beautiful flowers glinting in the sunlight made her gasp. "Oh, I must pick some of these for grandmother," she thought, "They will make her so happy." And hither and thither Red Riding Hood ran, picking the most perfect flowers she could find.
    But while Red Riding Hood was busy gathering flowers, the wolf was running, running. He did not stop, even for a single second and, in no time at all, there he was standing right outside grandmother's cottage. He lifted his paw and gave a sharp "knock-knock" at the door.
    "Who's there?" called grandmother, her voice faint and weak.
    "It's your granddughter, Little Red Riding Hood," said the wolf in a high-pitched, wavering voice. "I'm bringing you one of mother's cakes and a little pot of honey which she has asked me to give you."
    Grandmother, lying in her bed, cried out: "Press the latch, dear child. Iam too weak to get up."
    The wolf pressed down the latch with his paw and the door sprang open. Straight in he walked, glancing neither to right nor to left, and marched right up to grandmother's bed. He threw himself down on the old woman and in next to no time he had gobbled her right up - for he was a very hungry wolf. Then, as quickly as he could, he put on a nightdress and nightcap belonging to grandmother, and climbed into her bed. Now he waited for Red Ridding Hood to arrive.
    But, at that time, Red Riding Hood was still running around picking flowers. When her arms were full, she set off once more, trotting as fast as she could to grandmother's house.
    "Knock-knock" she went when she reached the house.
    "Who is there?" a rough, gravelly voice rasped.
    Red Riding Hood was frightened, very frightened, but she politely replied: "It is your own granddaughter, Red Riding Hood. I have a cake and a little pot of honey that mother has sent for you."
    "Yum, yum," cried the wolf, before remembering to alter his voice: "Pull the latch-pin, dear, and the bobbin will fall," he said, making a big effort to put on his kind vocie.
    Red Riding Hood put down her flowers, then pulled the latch-pin as she was told. The door sprang open. Although the wolf had wriggled down into the bed, Red Riding Hood sensed that something was wrong. "Good-morning, grandmother," she said nervously but the wolf did not answer. Red Riding Hood tiptoed towards the bed.
    "Oh, grandmother, what big ears you have got," she said.
    "All the better to hear you with, my dear," replied the wolf.
    "Oh, grandmother, what big eyes you have got,' cried Red Riding Hood.
    "All the better to see you with, my dear," simpered the wolf.
    "Look, grandmother, what big teeth you have got," exclaimed Red Riding Hood.
    "All the better to eat you with, my dear," growled the wolf and as he spoke he leapt from the bed, smacked his lips and devoured poor Red Riding hood. He climbed back into bed and a minute later he was snoring most horribly.
    Meanwhile, as the midday sun reached its full height, a huntsman walked past the house. What were those extraordinary noises he could hear coming from inside? The snoring was so loud it practically shook the walls of grandmother's cottage. The huntsman was puzzled.
    He peered around the half-open door, then he tiptoed inside, right up to grandmother's bed. The wold himself lay fast asleep, snoring louder than ever. "What are you doing here, you old rascal?" exclaimed the huntsman, "I've been trying to track you down for a long time." The huntsman raised his gun to shoot but suddenly he wondered: where was the old lady? "Could the wolf have eaten her up?" he thought. He pulled out his huntsman's knife and began opening up the sleeping wolf. At the first cut, he spied the red cloak, and, after a few more cuts, Red Riding Hood sprang out. "Oh, how frightened I was inside the dark wolf!" she cried.
    Next came grandmother, alive, but barely breathing. The huntsman tucked a shawl around her and comforted her. Then he went outside, returned with some large stone, filled the greedy wolf with the stones and sewed him up. When the cunning fellow awoke, the huntsman shot him dead.
    Now they were happy at last. The huntsman skinned the wolf, popped him in a sack and said "good-bye" to grandmother and Red Riding Hood and after Grandmother had eaten the cake and honey Red Riding Hood returned safely home.


from a bedtime story: Little Red Riding Hood and other tales
Retold by Geraldine Carter
Illustrated by Dorothea King