We’re all familiar with the story of Little Red Riding Hood, but do you know the story of “Little Red Cowboy Hat?” I reckon not. Sit a spell and I’ll tell you all about it.
Little Red Cowboy Hat, also known to friends and family as Little Red, lived on a ranch in the wilds of the West. Not only was her hat red, but so was her hair.
One day her mother asked her to take a loaf of bread and a jar of cactus jelly to her grandmother, who was sick in bed. Heeding her mother’s advice not to wander off and to be careful of rattlesnakes, off she went across the desert on her buckskin pony.
As she rode, she spotted some gold poppies and blue lupines, and decided to stop and pick some for Granny. But there was a wolf lurking behind a cactus.
He tried to get her to take a ride with him, but she climbed astride her pony and galloped away as fast as she could go. (Good girl!)
When she reached Grandma’s house, she was surprised to see everything quiet and still. Usually Grandma was outside working, but not today. Grandma must be really, really sick.
Of course we all know what happens next. Little Red goes into the bedroom and has a scintillating conversation about eyes, ears, head, shoulders, knees and toes, and then the wolf leaps up to eat her. Or does he?
In barges Granny, an axe in her hands. The wolf made a break for the window, intimidated by the sight of an angry grandma. But Grandma’s not done – she grabs her rifle.
“Take that, you low-life lobo!” she shouts.
She and Red climb on their horses and together they chase the wolf across the desert, whirling their lassos. And they never had any problems with wolfs again.
I liked this story. My only complaint is this: in a story taking place in the Old West, shouldn’t the wolf have been a coyote instead? And then I could have given you all a pronunciation lesson. See, on a regular day, you’d say “cai-o-tee.” But while reading a western, you’d pronounce it “cai-oat.” That would have been more fun than a tangle of rattlesnakes, don’t you reckon?
(This book was published in 1997 by Henry Holt and was illustrated by Randy Cecil.)
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