Once upon a time there was a girl named Red. She lived in a small house, in a small town, in the middle of a BIG forest. She lived in the small house with her mother and her sisters. They were a poor family, so they depended on the money their mother made as a seamstress, and the additional money Red made as a delivery girl to help them get by. One day, Red was asked to make a delivery for three old ladies who lived in town.
“We want you to deliver this basket of food to our brother, who lives far away, deep in the forest” the told her. They gave her a basket; full of the best looking food she had ever seen. She took the basket of food, and as she left, they called out to her a warning.
“ Stay on the path, and walk quickly through the forest, because there is danger out there!”
Red smiled and nodded, and headed out of town. She had been walking quite a while when she came to the most beautiful meadow, full of wildflowers of every shape and color, and tall stalks of golden grass.
“Oh, how lovely”, she said aloud, and forgetting the old ladies warning, she stepped of the path into the meadow, and began to pick flowers for her mother.
All of the sudden, there was a great boom, and a man was standing before her. He was very tall, and was wearing muddy dungarees and a flannel shirt. He had a great big beard, which was full of twigs and leaves.
“ Who are you?!” he said, in a great, big, loud voice. Red was rather scared so she whispered her name. “ Well girl,” the big man said, “ I don’t really care who you are, but you should know who I am. I am the Lumber Jack, and this is my forest. And I don’t appreciate people stealing the flowers from my forest.”
“ I ‘m very sorry “ she said, staring at her shoes, “but I’m picking them for my littlest sister, who loves flowers.” The Lumber Jack glared at her from under his bushy eyebrows, and said in a mean sort of way,
“ Well, you are still stealing from me, and I don’t like it. So I am going to give you three more chances not to take anything more. But if you, I am going to take something very important away from you.” And with that, he was gone.
So, some what shaken, Red continued on her way. Soon she came to a nice, big tree, which was surrounded with little white mushrooms. Knowing what a good mushroom soup her mother made, she decided to pick some to bring home. As she plucked one out of the ground, a big wolf appeared next to the tree.
“ Ah! Don’t eat me!” she yelled, and started to scramble backwards.
“Don’t worry Red, I wont eat you!” the wolf said. “I heard what the Lumber Jack said, and I don’t want him to get you too!”
“ What do you mean?” she asked, somewhat reassured that he wouldn’t eat her.
“ When the lumberjack said he would take something important, he meant your life! He uses people to feed his plants that are dying. But that makes them hungrier for meat, and that makes them a menace to the forest creatures. I don’t want to see him kill any more people, so I’m here to make sure you don’t make the same mistakes as all the other people.”
Red was touched that the wolf was looking out for her. “Why, thank you for wanting to help me.” she said.
The Wolf looked down at his paws. “ But its already to late.” he sighed. “You picked those mushrooms. You only have two more chances to not take anything, and to make it through the forest alive.” He turned back towards the trees. “So don’t take anything more.” And with that he leapt into the trees, and was gone.

Red sighed, put the mushrooms in her basket, and continued down the path. She hadn’t traveled more than twenty minutes when she came across a big black berry bush. She was very hungry, so she decided to pick one or two, just to make her stomach stop growling. As she reached for a big one, the wolf came out of the trees.
“ I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” He warned.
“ Its alright,” Red said, “ I still have a chance left, and I’m so hungry.”
The Wolf shook his head, and as he left, muttered, “ Well I can’t stop you…”
So she ate a few berries, and went on her way. Soon, she saw a lovely green pine tree. “Oh!” she said, “ The needles on that tree are so pretty, and smell so nice! They would make a lovely wreath!” so she reached out and picked off a branch. Again the wolf came, and shook his head at her.
“ You’re a silly girl, did you know that? Now you have used all your chances. Don’t pick anything more, or the Lumber Jack will get you!” Red was ashamed at herself, and so she hurried back down the path, to try and get safely to the old women’s brother’s house. But in her haste, a leaf got snagged on her cloak, and ripped of its branch.
There was a great boom and the Lumber Jack stood before her again, and this time he had a big axe.
“ I warned you!” he shouted and swung it at her. There was a great roar, and the Wolf was on top of him. They started to fight, and Red ran into the woods to hide. She could here yelling and growling, yelping and cursing. And all of a sudden, there was silence. She crawled out from her hiding place, and was amazed at what she saw. The three old women and a handsome young man were standing in front of the dead body of the Lumber Jack.
Red was shocked “ But… what… how?” The old women and the boy laughed. The boy stepped over the Lumber Jacks body and took her hands. “ I am the Wolf, and I was cursed, until you came along. You see, I was a greedy person, always taking from other people, so my sisters cursed me to be a wolf until I did something nice for someone. But I was mad at them, and stubborn so I refused to help any of the evil Lumber Jacks victims. But I fell in love with you when I saw you, and so I saved you from the Lumber Jack.”
Red was shocked but very happy, so she and the handsome young man and the three old women all went back to the village, and explained what had happened. Red and Wolff (as that’s what his name was) got married a few months later, and lived happily ever after in a big house in the woods, with her family and his sisters, until they were old.