Free The Juniper Tree and Other Tales by The Brothers Grimm Page B

the path like a good girl and don’t leave it, or you might fall and break the bottle, and then there’d be nothing for Grandmother. And when you get inside Grandmother’s house remember to say good morning, and don’t go poking about in all the corners first.”
    “I’ll be good,” said Little Red Cape, shaking hands with her mother to show that it was a promise. Now her grandmother lived in the forest, half an hour’s walk from the village, and as Little Red Cape walked in among the treesthe wolf came to meet her. But Little Red Cape didn’t know what a wicked wolf he was, so she wasn’t afraid of him.
    “Good day to you, Little Red Cape,” said the wolf.
    “Thank you kindly, wolf,” she said.
    “Where are you off to so early in the morning, Little Red Cape?”
    “I’m going to see Grandmother.”
    “What’s that you’re carrying under your apron?”
    “Some cake and wine—it was baking day yesterday, so I’m taking poor sick Grandmother something to do her good and make her stronger.”
    “And where does your grandmother live, Little Red Cape?”
    “Oh, her house is another good quarter of an hour’s walk away in the forest, under the three big oak trees and quite close to the hazelnut hedges. I’m sure you know the place,” said Little Red Cape.
    But the wicked wolf was thinking: This tender little girl is a nice plump morsel. She’ll taste even better than the old woman. If I go about this cunningly I can snap up the pair of them.
    So he trotted on beside Little Red Cape for a while, and then he said, “Oh, see the beautiful flowers growing around the path, Little Red Cape! Why not stop to take a look at them? And I don’t believe you’ve even heard the dear little birds who are singing so prettily! You just trudge along as if you were going to school, but it’s such fun out here in the forest.
    Little Red Cape opened her eyes to look around, and when she saw the sunbeams dancing back and forth among the trees, and all the beautiful flowers in the forest, she thought: Grandmother would like me to take her a bunch of fresh flowers, and it’s still so early that I’ll get to her house in plenty of time.
    Then she strayed off among the trees looking for flowers, and as soon as she had picked one she thought she saw an even prettier flower further away, so she ran to pick that one too, and all the time she strayed further and further into the forest.
    Meanwhile the wolf went straight to Grandmother’s house and knocked on the door.
    “Who’s there?” asked the old woman.
    “It’s Little Red Cape bringing you some cake and wine. Open the door!”
    “Just press down the latch,” called Grandmother. “I’m feeling too poorly to get out of bed.”
    So the wolf pressed down the latch, the door opened, and without a word he went straight over to Grandmother’s bed and swallowed her up. Then he dressed in her clothes, put her cap on his head, got into her bed and pulled the curtains around it.
    Little Red Cape, however, had been running about picking flowers, and when she had such an armful that she couldn’t carry any more she remembered Grandmother, and set off for her house. She was surprised to find thedoor open, and when she went in she felt so strange that she thought: Dear me, how scared I feel, and I usually love visiting Grandmother!
    “Good morning,” she called out, but there was no reply.
    Then she went over to the bed and pulled back the curtains. There lay Grandmother with her cap pulled well down over her face, looking very odd.
    “Oh, Grandmother, what big ears you have!” said the little girl.
    “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!”
    “But oh, Grandmother, what a terribly big mouth you have!”
    “All the better to EAT you with!”
    And as soon as the wolf had said that, he jumped out of bed