“Come down, Mother, that I may eat you.”
“Just wait a little longer, Bruin, until I have gathered a few more cherries,” said she, and she threw down her other shoe. “Gnaw on this,” she said, “and I will climb down in a few minutes and show you the way to my house.”
Bruin gnawed upon the second shoe but he found it no better than the first. But he contented himself with the thought of the two little kids that he would soon be eating, and he waited beneath the tree until old Mother Red Cap climbed down.
Down she came, with her apron full of cherries; home she went, and Bruin tramped along behind her. When they reached her house, old Mother Red Cap took Bruin, the Bear, out to the barn and showed him the two little kids. He was in a great hurry to get his paws around them, but, “Wait,” said Old Mother Red Cap. “First I must give the two little kids a fine supper that they may be fatter. Go back to the forest for the night and return in the morning. Then the two little kids will be fat enough for you to eat.”
So Bruin, the Bear, went back to the forest for the night. Old Mother Red Cap gave the two little kids a fine, large supper and then she locked the door of the barn and went to bed. Very early in the morning she went out to the barn and unlocked the door and let out the two fat little kids. They scampered off to pasture and were soon so far away that neither hide nor hoof of them could be seen. Then old Mother Red Cap locked the door of the barn again.
Almost as soon as the sun was up, Bruin, the Bear, tramped back from the forest, growling:
“Open the barn door, Mother, that I may eat the two little kids.”
Mother Red Cap stooped down to peep through the key hole of the barn door. Then she shook her head sadly.
“What a pity it is,” sighed old Mother Red Cap, “that the two little kids are gone. Can it be that my two mischievous little grandchildren, Janko and Mirko, unlocked the door and let the kids out?”
At that Bruin, the Bear, was very angry. “Then I must eat your two little grandchildren, Janko and Mirko,” he growled.