When springtime came, and all around began to look green and bright, one morning the bear said to Snow-White, “Now I must leave you, and all the summer long I shall not be able to come back.”

“Where, then, are you going, dear bear?” asked Snow-White.  “I have to go to the woods to protect my treasure from the bad dwarfs.  In winter time when the earth is frozen hard, they must remain underground, and cannot make their way through; but now that the sunshine has thawed the earth they can come to the surface, and whatever gets into their hands, or is brought to their caves, seldom, if ever, again sees daylight.”

Snow-White was very sad when she said good-bye to the good-natured beast, and unfastened the door, that he might go; but in going out he was caught by a hook in the lintel, and a scrap of his fur being torn, Snow-White thought there was something shining like gold through the rent; but he went out so quickly that she could not feel certain what it was, and soon he was hidden among the trees.

One day the mother sent her children into the wood to pick up sticks.  They found a big tree lying on the ground.  It had been felled, and towards the roots they noticed something skipping and springing, which they could not make out, as it was sometimes hidden in the grasses.  As they came nearer they could see it was a dwarf, with a shrivelled up face and a snow-white beard an ell long.  The beard was fixed in a gash in the tree trunk, and the tiny fellow was hopping to and fro, like a dog at the end of a string, but he could not manage to free himself.  He stared at the children, with his red, fiery eyes, and called out, “Why are you standing there?  Can’t you come and try to help me?”

“What were you doing, little fellow?” enquired Rose-Red.

“Stupid, inquisitive goose!” replied the dwarf; “I meant to split the trunk, so that I could chop it up for kitchen sticks; big logs would burn up the small quantity of food we cook, for people like us do not consume great heaps of food, as you heavy, greedy folk do.  The bill-hook I had driven in, and soon I should have done what I required; but the tool suddenly sprang from the cleft, which so quickly shut up again that it caught my handsome white beard; and here I must stop, for I cannot set myself free.  You stupid, pale-faced creatures!  You laugh, do you?”

In spite of the dwarf’s bad temper, the girls took all possible pains to release the little man, but without avail; the beard could not be moved, it was wedged too tightly.

“I will run and get someone else,” said Rose-Red.

“Idiot!” cried the dwarf.  “Who would go and get more people?  Already there are two too many.  Can’t you think of something better?”

“Don’t be so impatient,” said Snow-White.  “I will try to think.”  She clapped her hands as if she had discovered a remedy, took out her scissors, and in a moment set the dwarf free by cutting off the end of his beard.