Henceforth the bear came every evening at the same time, laid himself down by the hearth, and let the children amuse themselves with him as much as they liked; and they got so used to him that the doors were never fastened until their black friend had arrived.
When spring had come and all outside was green,the bear said one morning to Snow-white: \\u0027Now I must go away, and cannot come back for the whole summer.\\u0027 \\u0027Where are you going, then, dear bear?\\u0027 asked Snow-white. \\u0027I must go into the forest and guard my treasures from the wicked dwarfs. In the winter, when the earth is frozen hard, they are obliged to stay below and cannot work their way through; but now, when the sun has thawed and warmed the earth, they break through it, and come out to pry and steal; and what once gets into their hands, and in their caves, does not easily see daylight again.\\u0027
Snow-white was quite sorry at his departure, and as she unbolted the door for him, and the bear was hurrying out, he caught against the bolt and a piece of his hairy coat was torn off, and it seemed to Snowwhite as if she had seen gold shining through it, but she was not sure about it. The bear ran away quickly,and was soon out of sight behind the trees.
A short time afterwards the mother sent her children into the forest to get firewood. There they found a big tree which lay felled on the ground, and close by the trunk something was jumping backwards and forwards in the grass, but they could not make out what it was.When they came nearer they saw a dwarf with an old withered face and a snow-white beard a yard long. The end of the beard was caught in a crevice of the tree,and the little fellow was jumping about like a dog tied to a rope, and did not know what to do.
He glared at the girls with his fiery red eyes and cried: \\u0027Why do you stand there? Can you not come here and help me?\\u0027 \\u0027What are you up to, little man?\\u0027asked Rose-red. \\u0027You stupid, prying goose!\\u0027 answered the dwarf: \\u0027I was going to split the tree to get a little wood for cooking. The little bit of food that we people get is immediately burnt up with heavy logs; we do not swallow so much as you coarse, greedy folk. I had just driven the wedge safely in, and everything was going as I wished; but the cursed wedge was too smooth and suddenly sprang out, and the tree closed so quickly that I could not pull out my beautiful white beard; so now it is tight and I cannot get away, and the silly, sleek, milk-faced things laugh! Ugh! how odious you are!\\u0027
The children tried very hard, but they could not pull the beard out, it was caught too fast. \\u0027I will run and fetch someone,\\u0027 said Rose-red. \\u0027You senseless goose!\\u0027snarled the dwarf; \\u0027why should you fetch someone?You are already two too many for me; can you not think of something better?\\u0027 \\u0027Don\\u0027t be impatient,\\u0027 said Snow-white, \\u0027I will help you,\\u0027 and she pulled her scissors out of her pocket, and cut off the end of the beard.
As soon as the dwarf felt himself free he laid hold of a bag which lay amongst the roots of the tree, and which was full of gold, and lifted it up, grumbling to himself: \\u0027Uncouth people, to cut off a piece of my fine beard. Bad luck to you!\\u0027 and then he swung the bag upon his back, and went off without even once looking at the children.
Some time afterwards Snow-white and Rose-red went to catch a dish of fish. As they came near the brook they saw something like a large grasshopper jumping towards the water, as if it were going to leap in. They ran to it and found it was the dwarf. \\u0027Where are you going?\\u0027 said Rose-red; \\u0027you surely don\\u0027t want to go into the water?\\u0027 \\u0027I am not such a fool!\\u0027 cried the dwarf; \\u0027don\\u0027t you see that the accursed fish wants to pull me in?\\u0027 The little man had been sitting there fishing, and unluckily the wind had tangled up his beard with the fishing-line; a moment later a big fis made a bite and the feeble creature had not strength to pull it out; the fish kept the upper hand and pulled the dwarf towards him. He held on to all the reeds and rushes, but it was of little good, for he was forced to follow the movements of the fish, and was in urgent danger of being dragged into the water.
The girls came just in time; they held him fast and tried to free his beard from the line, but all in vain,beard and line were entangled fast together. There was nothing to do but to bring out the scissors and cut the beard, whereby a small part of it was lost. When the dwarf saw that he screamed out: \\u0027Is that civil, you toadstool, to disfigure a man\\u0027s face? Was it not enough to clip off the end of my beard? Now you have cut off the best part of it. I cannot let myself be seen by my people. I wish you had been made to run the soles off your shoes!\\u0027 Then he took out a sack of pearls which lay in the rushes, and without another word he dragged it away and disappeared behind a stone.