“Little Red-Riding-Hood.” The Book of Fables and Folk Stories, Horace Elisha Scudder, Boston: Houghton Mifflin; 1919, pp. 1-4.

Tale Summary

There was once a little girl who was well-loved by her mother, and even more by her grandmother, who made her a red cloak that suited the child so well that everyone called her “Little Red-Riding-Hood”. One day, Red-Riding-Hood’s mother gave her a cake and some butter to take to her grandmother because she had been ill. On her way through the woods she met a wolf who asked her where she was going, because he dared not eat her there where there were woodcutters nearby. The wolf said he would try to go one way and she the other to see who was fastest, and soon reached the grandmother’s house. He called to the old woman, pretending to be Red-Riding-Hood, and she told him to pull the string to lift the latch and come in. He ate her quickly and then put on her clothes and hid in bed for Red-Riding-Hood, who, when she arrived, told to pull the string to come in. The girl thought she must have a bad cold, and when she got closer, went back and forth with the wolf:

“Grandmother, what great arms you have!”

“The better to hug you, my dear.”

“Grandmother, what big ears you have!”

“The better to hear you, my dear.”

“Grandmother, what great eyes you have!”

“The better to see you, my dear.”

Grandmother, what great teeth you have!”

“The better to eat you.”

And the wolf ate her all up.