Immediately the dwarf felt that he was free he seized a sackful of gold that was hidden among the tree roots, and, lifting it up, grumbled out, “Clumsy creatures, to cut off a bit of my beautiful beard, of which I am so proud!  I leave the cuckoos to pay you for what you did.”  Saying this, he swung the sack across his shoulder and went off without even casting a glance at the children.

Not long afterwards the two sisters went to angle in the brook, meaning to catch fish for dinner.  As they were drawing near the water they perceived something, looking like a large grasshopper, springing towards the stream, as if it were going in.  They hurried up to see what it might be, and found that it was the dwarf.  “Where are you going?” said Rose-Red.  “Surely you will not jump into the water?”

“I’m not such a simpleton as that!” yelled the little man.  “Don’t you see that a wretch of a fish is pulling me in?”

The dwarf had been sitting angling from the side of the stream when, by ill-luck, the wind had entangled his beard in his line, and just afterwards a big fish taking the bait, the unamiable little fellow had not sufficient strength to pull it out; so the fish had the advantage, and was dragging the dwarf after it.  Certainly he caught at every stalk and spray near him, but that did not assist him greatly; he was forced to follow all the twistings of the fish, and was perpetually in danger of being drawn into the brook.

The girls arrived just in time.  They caught hold of him firmly, and endeavoured to untwist his beard from the line, but in vain; it was too tightly entangled.  There was nothing left but again to make use of the scissors; so they were taken out, and the tangled portion was cut off.

When the dwarf noticed what they were about, he exclaimed, in a great rage, “Is this how you damage my beard?  Not content with making it shorter before, you are now making it still smaller, and completely spoiling it.  I shall not ever dare to show my face to my friends.  I wish you had missed your way before you took this road.”  Then he fetched a sack of pearls that lay among the rushes, and saying not another word, hobbled off and disappeared behind a large stone.

Soon after this it chanced that the poor widow sent her children to the town to purchase cotton, needles, ribbon and tape.  The way to the town ran over a common on which in every direction large masses of rocks were scattered about.  The children’s attention was soon attracted to a big bird that hovered in the air.  They remarked that after circling slowly for a time, and gradually getting nearer to the ground, it all of a sudden pounced down amongst a mass of rock.  Instantly a heart-rending cry reached their ears, and, running quickly to the place, they saw, with horror, that the eagle had seized their former acquaintance, the dwarf, and was just about to carry him off.  The kind children did not hesitate for an instant.  They took a firm hold of the little man, they strove so stoutly with the eagle for possession of his contemplated prey, that, after much rough treatment on both sides, the dwarf was left in the hands of his brave little friends, and the eagle took to flight.