Stranica 173 [173]
LITTLE RED-CAP. 133
mother is very weak and ill, so they will do her good, and
strengthen her.”
“Where does your grandmother live, Little Red-cap ? ”
** A quarter of an hours walk from here; her house stands
beneath the three oak trees, and you may know it by the
hazel bushes,” said Little Red-cap. The wolf thought to
himself, |
“That tender young thing would be a delicious morsel,
and would taste better than the old one; I must manage
somehow to get both of them.”
Then he walked by Little Red-cap a little while, and said,
“Little Red-cap, just look at the pretty flowers that are
growing all round you, and I don’t think you are listening to
the song of the birds ; you are posting along just as if you were
going to school, and it is so delightful out here in the wood.”
Little Red-cap glanced round her, and when she saw the
sunbeams darting here and there through the trees, and lovely
flowers everywhere, she thought to herself,
“If I were to take a fresh nosegay to my grandmother
she would be very pleased, and it 1s so early in the day that I
shall reach her in plenty of time ;” and so she ran about in the
wood, looking for flowers. And as she picked one she saw
a still prettier one a little farther off, and so she went farther
. and farther into the wood. But the wolf went straight to the
. grandmother’s house and knocked at the door.
| “Who is there?” cried the grandmother.
“Little Red-cap,” he answered, "and I have brought you
some cake and wine. Please open the door.”
“Lift the latch,” cried the grandmother; "I am too feeble
to get up.”
So the wolf lifted the latch, and the door flew open, and
he fell on the grandmother and ate her up without saying one
word. ‘Then he drew on her clothes, put on her cap, lay
down in her bed, and drew the curtains.
Little Red-cap was all this time running about among the
flowers, and when she had gathered as many as she could
hold, she remembered her grandmother; and set off to go to
her. She was surprised to find the door standing open, and
when she came inside she felt very strange, and thought to
herself,