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English
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Part 4 of Fairy Tales
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Peja's Wonderful World of Makebelieve Import
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Published:
2020-11-05
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1,625
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Little Red-Tail Riding Fox

Summary:

Once upon a time there was a dear little boy named Fox, who was loved by every one who looked at him, but most of all by his grandmother Scully, and there was nothing that she would not have given to the child.

Work Text:

 

Little Red-Tail Riding Fox
by Ciejye

Once upon a time there was a dear little boy named Fox, who was loved by every one who looked at him, but most of all by his grandmother Scully, and there was nothing that she would not have given to the child. Once she gave him a little cape of red velvet, which suited him so well that he would never wear anything else. But more often than that he was naughty, and would get his bottom spanked. So he was always called Little Red-Tail Riding Fox.

One day his mother said to him, "Come, Little Red-Tail Riding Fox, here is a piece of cake and a bottle of wine. Take them to your grandmother Scully, she is ill and weak, and they 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 then your grandmother Scully will get nothing. And when you go into her room, don't forget to say, good-morning, and don't peep into every corner before you do it."

"I will take great care, said Little Red-Tail Riding Fox to her mother, and gave his hand on it.

The grandmother Scully lived out in the wood, half a league from the village, and just as Little Red-Tail Riding Fox entered the wood, a wolf named Alex met him. Little Red-Tail Riding Fox did not know what a wicked creature he was, and was not at all afraid of him.

"Good-day, Little Red-Tail Riding Fox," said Alex the wolf.

"Thank you kindly, wolf."

"Whither away so early, Little Red-Tail Riding Fox?"

"To my grandmother Scully's."

"What have you got in your apron?"

"Cake and wine. Yesterday was baking-day, so poor sick grandmother Scully is to have something good, to make her stronger."

"Where does your grandmother Scully live, Little Red-Tail Riding Fox?"

"A good quarter of a league farther on in the wood. Her house stands under the three large oak-trees, the nut-trees are just below. You surely must know it," replied Little Red-Tail Riding Fox.

Alex the wolf thought to himself, "What a tender young creature. What a nice plump mouthful, he will be better to eat than the old woman. I must act craftily, so as to catch both." So he walked for a short time by the side of Little Red-Tail Riding Fox, and then he said, "see Little Red-Tail Riding Fox, how pretty the flowers are about here. Why do you not look round. I believe, too, that you do not hear how sweetly the little birds are singing. You walk gravely along as if you were going to school, while everything else out here in the wood is merry."

Little Red-Tail Riding Fox raised his eyes, and when he saw the sunbeams dancing here and there through the trees, and pretty flowers growing everywhere, he thought, suppose I take grandmother Scully a fresh nosegay. That would please her too. It is so early in the day that I shall still get there in good time. And so he ran from the path into the wood to look for flowers. And whenever he had picked one, he fancied that she saw a still prettier one farther on, and ran after it, and so got deeper and deeper into the wood.

Meanwhile, Alex the wolf ran straight to the grandmother Scully's house and knocked at the door.

"Who is there?"

"Little Red-Tail Riding Fox," replied Alex the wolf. "He is bringing cake and wine. Open the door."

"Lift the latch," called out the grandmother Scully, "I am too weak, and cannot get up."

Alex the wolf lifted the latch, the door sprang open, and without saying a word he went straight to the grandmother Scully's bed, and devoured her. Then he put on her clothes, dressed himself in her cap, laid himself in bed and drew the curtains.

Little Red-Tail Riding Fox, however, had been running about picking flowers, and when he had gathered so many that he could carry no more, he remembered his grandmother Scully, and set out on the way to her.

He was surprised to find the cottage-door standing open, and when he went into the room, he had such a strange feeling that he said to himself, oh dear, how uneasy I feel to-day, and at other times I like being with grand mother Scully so much.

He called out, "Good morning," but received no answer. So he went to the bed and drew back the curtains. There lay her grandmother Scully with her cap pulled far over her face, and looking very strange.

"Oh, grandmother Scully," he said, "what big ears you have."

"The better to hear you with, my child," was the reply.

"But, grandmother Scully, what big eyes you have," he said.

"The better to see you with, my dear."

"But, grandmother Scully, what large hands you have."

"The better to hug you with."

"Oh, but, grandmother Scully, what a terrible big mouth you have."

"The better to eat you with."

And scarcely had Alex the wolf said this, than with one bound he was out of bed and swallowed up Little Red-Tail Riding Fox.

When Alex the wolf had appeased his appetite, he lay down again in the bed, fell asleep and began to snore very loud. The huntsman, Walter The Wolf-Skinner was just passing the house, and thought to himself, how the old woman is snoring. I must just see if she wants anything.

So he went into the room, and when he came to the bed, he saw that Alex the wolf was lying in it. "Do I find you here, you old sinner," said he. "I have long sought you."

Then just as he was going to fire at him, it occurred to him that Alex the wolf might have devoured the grandmother Scully, and that she might still be saved, so he did not fire, but took a pair of scissors, and began to cut open the stomach of the sleeping wolf.

When he had made two snips, he saw the Little Red-Tail Riding Fox shining, and then he made two snips more, and the little boy sprang out, crying, "Ah, how frightened I have been. How dark it was inside Alex the wolf. I will never stray from the path again."

The huntsman, Walter The Wolf-Skinner, frowned when he heard Little Red-Tail Riding Fox had been so naughty. He drew the little boy over his knee and gave him 5 stinging swats on his little bottom. Then five more before he set the crying child in the corner.

And after that the aged grandmother Scully came out alive also, but scarcely able to breathe. Little Red-Tail Riding Fox, however, did not stay in the corner. He was sent fetch great stones with which they filled Alex the wolf's belly, and when he awoke, he wanted to run away, but the stones were so heavy that he collapsed at once, and fell dead.

Then all three were delighted. The huntsman, Walter The Wolf-Skinner drew off Alex the wolf's skin and went home with it. Before he left he told Little Red-Tail Riding Fox that he would come to visit him every day, and give him a spanking to remind him to be a good boy. The grandmother Scully ate the cake and drank the wine which Little Red-Tail Riding Fox had brought, and revived, but Little Red-Tail Riding Fox thought to himself, as he rubbed his stinging tail, as long as I live, I will never by myself leave the path, to run into the wood, when my mother has forbidden me to do so.

It is also related that once when Little Red-Tail Riding Fox was again taking cakes to the old grandmother Scully, another wolf who was smoking a cigarette spoke to him, and tried to entice him from the path. Little Red-Tail Riding Fox, however, was on his guard, remembering the spanking he had gotten from the huntsmen. He went straight forward on his way, and told his grandmother Scully that he had met the smoking wolf, and that he had said good-morning to him, but with such a wicked look in his eyes, that if they had not been on the public road he was certain he would have eaten him up. "Well," said the grandmother Scully, "we will shut the door, that he may not come in."

Soon afterwards the smoking wolf knocked, and cried, "open the door, grandmother Scully, I am Little Red-Tail Riding Fox, and am bringing you some cakes."

But they did not speak, or open the door, so the grey-beard stole twice or thrice round the house, and at last jumped on the roof, intending to wait until Little Red-Tail Riding Fox went home in the evening, and then to steal after him and devour him in the darkness. But the grandmother Scully saw what was in his thoughts. In front of the house was a great stone trough, so she said to the child, take the pail, Little Red-Tail Riding Fox. I made some sausages yesterday, so carry the water in which I boiled them to the trough. Little Red-Tail Riding Fox carried until the great trough was quite full. Then the smell of the sausages reached the smoking wolf, and he sniffed and peeped down, and at last stretched out his neck so far that he could no longer keep his footing and began to slip, and slipped down from the roof straight into the great trough, and was drowned.

But Little Red-Tail Riding Fox went joyously home, and no one ever did anything to harm her again. And he always stayed on the path, for every day the huntsmen Walter the Wolf-Skinner put Little Red-Tail Riding Fox over his knee and gave him 10 swats to remind him.

 

The End

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