And so it was, as you will see.
One day the mother said to the child: "Let us see, my little Golden Hood, if you know now how to find your way by yourself. You shall take this good piece of cake to your grandmother for a Sunday treat to-morrow. You will ask her how she is, and come back at once, without stopping to chatter on the way with people you don't know. Do you quite understand?"
"I quite understand," replied Blanchette gayly. And off she went with the cake, quite proud of her errand.
But the grandmother lived in another village, and there was a big wood to cross before getting there. At a turn of the road under the trees suddenly, "Who goes there?"
"Friend Wolf."
He had seen the child start alone, and the villain was waiting to devour her, when at the same moment he perceived some wood-cutters who might observe him, and he changed his mind. Instead of falling upon Blanchette he came frisking up to her like a good dog.
"'Tis you! my nice Little Golden Hood," said he. So the little girl stops to talk with the wolf, whom, for all that, she did not know in the least.
"You know me, then!" said she. "What is your name?"
"My name is friend Wolf. And where are you going thus, my pretty one, with your little basket on your arm?"
"I am going to my grandmother to take her a good piece of cake for her Sunday treat to-morrow."