After that fiasco with the wolf, I truly regretted giving my granddaughter that little red velvet cap. It suited her, though, and she continues to wear it. She won’t wear anything else.

When she came for a visit the other day, I asked her, “Aren’t you afraid of wolves?”

“I don’t intend to meet one, grandmother,” she said, patting me on the knee. “From now on, when I come to visit you, I will stay on the public road. And if I happen to meet a wolf and see that wicked look in his eye, I will come to you and tell you.”

“Good!” I exclaimed. “And then we’ll figure out a way to catch him!”

Red-Cap’s Grandmother in Little Red-Cap, the Grimms’ version of Red Riding Hood. Illustration by Nikolaos Gyzis.