"Oh, quite twenty minutes' walk further in the forest. The cottage
stands under three great oak trees; and close by are some nut bushes,
by which you will at once know it."

The wolf was thinking to himself, "She is a nice tender thing, and
will taste better than the old woman; I must act cleverly, that I may
make a meal of both."

[Illustration: "WHERE ARE YOU GOING SO EARLY, LITTLE RED RIDING
HOOD."]

Presently he came up again to Little Red Riding Hood and said. "Just
look at the beautiful flowers which grow near you; why do you not look
about you? I believe you don't hear how sweetly the birds are singing.
You walk as if you were going to school; see how cheerful everything
is around you in the forest."

And Little Red Riding Hood opened her eyes; and when she saw how the
sunbeams glanced and danced through the trees, and what bright flowers
were blooming in her path, she thought, "If I take my grandmother a
fresh nosegay she will be much pleased; and it is so very early that
I can, even then, get there in good time:" and running into the forest
she looked about for flowers. But when she had once begun she did
not know how to leave off, and kept going deeper and deeper among the
trees looking for some still more beautiful flower. The Wolf, however,
ran straight to the house of the old grandmother, and knocked at the
door.

"Who's that?" asked the old lady.