Little Red Riding Hood

Long long time ago, there was a little girl, who was loved by everyone. She lived in a village near the forest. Once her grandmother, gave her a little riding hood of red color. The little girl liked the hood a lot and every time she likes to wear the hood, so the villagers started calling her 'Little Red Riding Hood.'

One day, mother told her, " Little Red Riding Hood, here is a piece of cake and a bottle of wine; take them to your grandmother, she is ill and weak, and this 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 when you go into her room, don't forget to say, "Good morning".

'Do not worry, I will take great care,' said Little Red Riding Hood to her mother.

After Little Red Riding hood started her journey, she noticed some lovely flowers in the woods, she forgot to keep her promise to her mother.  She picked up few flowers, watched the butterflies for a while, listened to the frogs croaking and then picked up few more flowers. 

Little Red Riding Hood was enjoying the warm summer day so much, that she didn't notice a dark shadow approaching out of the forest behind her.

Suddenly, the wolf appeared beside her.

"What are you doing out here, little girl?" the wolf asked in a voice as friendly as he could muster.

"I'm on my way to see my Grandma who lives through the forest, near the brook,"  Little Red Riding Hood replied.

Then she realized how late she was and quickly excused herself, rushing down the path to her Grandma's house. 

The wolf, in the meantime, took a shortcut...

The wolf ran straight to the grandmother's house and knocked at the door.

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.' 

'Who is there?'Grandmother asked.

'Little Red Riding Hood,' 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 sprang open. The wolf let himself in.  Poor Granny did not have time to say another word, before the wolf gobbled her up! The wolf let out a satisfied burp, and then poked through Granny's wardrobe to find a nightgown that he liked. He added a frilly sleeping cap, and for good measure, dabbed some of Granny's perfume behind his pointy ears.

After few minutes, Little Red Riding Hood knocked at the door. The wolf jumped into bed and pulled the covers over his nose.  "Who is it?" he called in a crackly voice.

"It's me, Little Red Riding Hood."

"Oh how lovely!  Do come in, my dear," croaked the wolf.

When Little Red Riding Hood entered the little cottage, she could scarcely recognize her Grandmother.

"Grandmother!  Your voice sounds so odd.  Is something the matter?" she asked.

"Oh, I just have touch of a cold," squeaked the wolf adding a cough at the end to prove the point.

'Oh! grandmother,' she said, 'what big ears you have!'

'All the better to hear you with, my dear,'  replied the wolf.

'But, grandmother, what big eyes you have!' she said.

'All the better to see you with, my dear.' replied the wolf.

'But, grandmother, what large hands you have!'

'All the better to hug you with, my dear.' replied the wolf.

'Oh! but, grandmother, what a terrible big mouth you have!'

'All the better to eat you with, my dear!'

And scarcely had the wolf said this, and he leapt out of the bed and began to chase the little girl.

Almost too late, Little Red Riding Hood realized that the person in the bed was not her Grandmother, but a hungry wolf. He jumped out and gobbled up Little Red Riding Hood, red cape and all, in a single swallow.

Now the Wolf felt really sleepy after such a large meal. He decided to take a nap in Grandma's warm, comfortable cottage. He made a comfortable place for himself on the bed, and was soon fast asleep, snoring loudly and contentedly.

 

Just then a woodcutter passed by. He heard the sound of the Wolf's snoring through the open windows of the cottage. The woodcutter knew this Wolf, and did not trust him at all.

The woodcutter went inside the cottage and saw the wolf, his tummy was unusually bigger in size. The woodcutter started thinking, " Who he has eaten this time".

The woodcutter picked up a pair of Grandma's scissors lying on the table, and deftly cut open the sleeping Wolf's tummy.

When he had made two snips, he saw the little red riding hood 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.'

After few more snips, the aged grandmother came out alive too, but scarcely able to breathe. 'Hurry!' said the woodcutter. 'Let's not waste any time. The Wolf could wake up any moment.' The woodcutter and Red Riding hood then gathered up some stones, the biggest they could find, and put them inside the Wolf's tummy. Then Grandma took out her sewing kit, and threading a needle with some strong brown cotton, sewed up the Wolf's tummy neatly and quickly.

In a little while the Wolf woke up. 'Oh dear,' he thought. 'I must be getting old! I can't even eat a little girl and her grandma without feeling as though my tummy was full of stones!' The Wolf gave a great big belch and staggered out of the door. 'I don't think I'll ever eat humans again. They don't agree with me!' And that was the last that anyone ever saw of him.

After the wolf was gone, the woodcutter also left for his home, the grandmother ate the cake and drank the wine which Red Riding Hood had brought, and revived. As for Little Red Riding Hood herself, she never forgot her mother's advice again!

The Princess and the Pea

Once there lived a prince, and he wanted a princess, but then he wanted a real Princess. He traveled around the world to find one, but there was always something wrong. There were plenty of princesses, but whether they were real princesses he had great difficulty in discovering; there was always something which was not quite right about them. So at last he had come home again, and he was very sad because he wanted a real princess so badly.

One evening there was a terrible storm; it thundered and there was lightning too and the rain poured down in torrents; indeed it was a fearful night.

In the middle of the storm somebody knocked at the town gate, and the Old King himself opened the door.

It was a princess who stood outside, but she was in a terrible state from the rain and the storm. The water was streaming out of her hair and clothes; it ran in at the top of her shoes and out at the heel, but she said that she was a real princess.

‘Well we shall soon see if that is true,’ thought the old Queen, but she said nothing. She went into the Guest Bedroom with her servants, they took the mattress off and laid a pea on the bedstead: then she asked the servants to pile twenty mattresses on top of the pea, and then twenty feather beds on top of the mattresses.

This was the bed, where princess was suppose to sleep that night. The Queen showed the Princess her bed. The Princess happily climbed the ladder to the bed.

In the morning, at the time of breakfast, they asked her how she slept.

‘Oh terribly bad!’ said the princess. ‘I have hardly closed my eyes the whole night! Heaven knows what was in the bed. I seemed to be lying upon some hard thing, and my whole body is black and blue this morning. It was terrible!’

They saw at once that she is a real princess. Only the real princess can feel, the pea through twenty mattresses and twenty feather beds. Nobody but a real princess could have such a delicate skin.

So the prince took her to be his wife, as for now he was sure that he had found a real princess, and the pea was put into the Museum, where it was still be seen.