Max, The Adventurous Flea

There once was a family of fleas that lived on a great big Saint Bernard  dog. Now this dog belonged to a wonderful family. There was a dad, a mom, and two little kids, Mollie and Jonathan. This family lived in a nice, peaceful country town somewhere in the south, around Louisiana or maybe even  Mississippi. Since the Flea Family lived on the great big Saint Bernard, that was their home and what part of the world the great big Saint Bernard lived in made no difference to them.
The Flea Family had oodles of kids. Max was the youngest of the Flea Family  kids and also was the adventurous one. He had an itch for adventure. No pun intended! He liked to roam from one end of the great big Saint Bernard to the other end. It was quite a distance since Saint Bernard's are very huge  dogs. Sometimes his parents would have to scold Max for roaming so far from home. He was not allowed to go past the middle of the great big Saint Bernard. Max did not always listen to his mom and dad and usually got into  trouble for misbehaving. He sure did have a bold personality.
Well, on with the story. One day, the nice country family decided to take a  trip to the big city. They decided to take the family dog with them and leave him in a kennel in the city until they got ready to go back home to the country. They were only going to be gone for a couple of days and thought the  family pet would do better in a city kennel rather than being left back home alone with just a neighbor caring for him. So, after arriving in the big city, the country family bid farewell to the family pet at the kennel and set  out to tour the big city and do some shopping at the big city mall.
The family pet did not like the kennel at all. It was too noisy. The other  animals in the kennel were not very friendly and the family pet was tired of all the commotion. The family pet decided to do something about this situation. He believed that if he could just find a way out, he could be reunited  with the country family and go back home.
When the kennel keeper came in to feed all the noisy pets, the family Saint  Bernard made his escape. He was so quick that the kennel keeper did not have a chance to stop him. He was out the door and down the street bouncing and running as swiftly as he could. He was mighty fast for such a large dog.
Well, all this confusion was starting to make the Flea Family a bit upset.  They were not used to so much excitement. They had always led such a calm and peaceful existence on the great big Saint Bernard. Of course, the adventurous Max loved the new feeling of the excitement. What was going to happen  next, he thought.
The family pet made his way down three streets, two avenues and across a  four lane highway without getting a scratch on him. A miracle, indeed! The Flea Family was just holding on for dear life. The smell of fumes from cars, the sound of sirens, people talking, horns honking and the great big Saint  Bernard panting was starting to make their calm lives turn upside down. Max, on the other hand, was having a fantastic adventure. He had never been this far from home before. He had traveled all the way to the great big Saint  Bernard's nose. From this point of view, he could see everything. "Say, what a big, big city", Max said. Max could see the mall, the people, the cars, and the big tall buildings. The city was enormous. The adventurous  Max was having so much fun except for the occasional wet lick from the great big Saint Bernard's tongue. Now that was a little too dangerous for Max. One lick and he could be a goner. But, no, the great big Saint Bernard missed  him by a mile. Thank goodness, Max thought.
The great big Saint Bernard did not know which way to turn next but luckily,  just about the time he was about to give up finding the country family, they found him. He had made it all the way to the mall. They could not believe their eyes. There was the family pet, the great big Saint Bernard, standing  at the mall entrance. "How in the world did he find his way here?" they said to each other. My goodness, what a story we will have to tell when we get back home.
The country family put the great big Saint Bernard in the family vehicle and  away they started toward home. Max was a little sad but happy as well. This had been a memorable adventure but now it was time for him to go home too. He made his way from the nose of the great big Saint Bernard back to his  home at the tail. Of course, his mom and dad scolded him for venturing so far from home. They had been so worried. After the scolding and Max promising not to wander so far from home again without permission, the whole Flea  Family hugged him. Max was so happy. Not only did he get to have a fun, wonderful adventure but also he got to go back home to his loving family.
Max was an explorer at heart. But, he also was smart enough to realize that  you could find happiness and adventure right in your own backyard whether it is in the country, the city or the bushy tail of a great big Saint Bernard.
Max, the flea, had many more adventures in his life. He lived a long and  happy existence on that great big Saint Bernard.

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Brothers Grimm Little Red Riding Hood

Once upon a time there was a dear little girl who was loved by everyone who looked at her, but most of all by her grandmother, and there was nothing that she would not have given to the child. Once she gave her a little riding hood of red velvet, which suited her so well that she would never wear anything else; so she was always called 'Little Red Riding Hood.'
     One day her mother said to her: 'Come, Little Red Riding Hood, here is a piece of cake and a bottle of wine; take them to your grandmother, 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 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 Riding Hood to her mother, and gave her hand on it.
     The grandmother lived out in the wood, half a league from the village, and just as Little Red Riding Hood entered the wood, a wolf met her. Red Riding Hood did not know what a wicked creature he was, and was not at all afraid of him.
     'Good day, Little Red Riding Hood,' said he.
     'Thank you kindly, wolf.'
     'Whither away so early, Little Red Riding Hood?'
     'To my grandmother's.'
     'What have you got in your apron?'
     'Cake and wine; yesterday was baking-day, so poor sick grandmother is to have something good, to make her stronger.'
     'Where does your grandmother live, Little Red Riding Hood?'
     '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 Riding Hood.
The wolf thought to himself: 'What a tender young creature! what a nice plump mouthful - she 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 Riding Hood, and then he said: 'See, Little Red Riding Hood, 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 Riding Hood raised her eyes, and when she saw the sunbeams dancing here and there through the trees, and pretty flowers growing everywhere, she thought: 'Suppose I take grandmother a fresh nosegay; that would please her too. It is so early in the day that I shall still get there in good time.'
     So she ran from the path into the wood to look for flowers. And whenever she had picked one, she fancied that she saw a still prettier one farther on, and ran after it, and so got deeper and deeper into the wood.
     Meanwhile the wolf ran straight to the grandmother's house and knocked at the door.
     'Who is there?'
     'Little Red Riding Hood,' replied the wolf. 'She is bringing cake and wine; open the door.'
     'Lift the latch,' called out the grandmother, 'I am too weak, and cannot get up.'
     The wolf lifted the latch, the door sprang open, and without saying a word he went straight to the grandmother'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 Riding Hood, however, had been running about picking flowers, and when she had gathered so many that she could carry no more, she remembered her grandmother, and set out on the way to her.
She was surprised to find the cottage-door standing open, and when she went into the room, she had such a strange feeling that she said to herself: 'Oh dear! how uneasy I feel today, and at other times I like being with grandmother so much.' She called out: 'Good morning,' but received no answer; so she went to the bed and drew back the curtains. There lay her grandmother with her cap pulled far over her face, and looking very strange.
     'Oh! grandmother,' she said, 'what big ears you have!'
     'All the better to hear you with, my child,' was the reply.
     'But, grandmother, what big eyes you have!' she said.
     'All the better to see you with, my dear.'
     'But, grandmother, what large hands you have!'
     'All the better to hug you with.'
     'Oh! but, grandmother, what a terrible big mouth you have!'
     'All the better to eat you with!'
     And scarcely had the wolf said this, than with one bound he was out of bed and swallowed up Red Riding Hood.
     When the wolf had appeased his appetite, he lay down again in the bed, fell asleep and began to snore very loud.
     The huntsman 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 the wolf was lying in it.
     'Do I find you here, you old sinner!' said he. 'I have long sought you!' But just as he was going to fire at him, it occurred to him that the wolf might have devoured the grandmother, 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 riding hood shining, and then he made two snips more, and the little girl sprang out, crying: 'Ah, how frightened I have been! How dark it was inside the wolf.'
     After that the aged grandmother came out alive also, but scarcely able to breathe. Red Riding Hood, however, quickly fetched great stones with which they filled 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 drew off the wolf's skin and went home with it; the grandmother ate the cake and drank the wine which Red Riding Hood had brought, and revived. But Red Riding Hood thought to herself: 'As long as I live, I will never leave the path by myself to run into the wood, when my mother has forbidden me to do so.'
 
It is also related that once, when Red Riding Hood was again taking cakes to the old grandmother, another wolf spoke to her, and tried to entice her from the path. Red Riding Hood, however, was on her guard, and went straight forward on her way, and told her grandmother that she had met the wolf, and that he had said 'good morning' to her, but with such a wicked look in his eyes, that if they had not been on the public road she was certain he would have eaten her up.
     'Well,' said the grandmother, 'we will shut the door, so that he can not come in.'
     Soon afterwards the wolf knocked, and cried: 'Open the door, grandmother, I am Little Red Riding Hood, 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 Red Riding Hood went home in the evening, and then to steal after her and devour her in the darkness. But the grandmother 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, Red Riding Hood; I made some sausages yesterday, so carry the water in which I boiled them to the trough.'      Red Riding Hood carried until the great trough was quite full. Then the smell of the sausages reached the 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 Red Riding Hood went joyously home, and no one ever did anything to harm her again.

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