you not see this fish will pull me in?"

The little man had been sitting there angling, and, unfortunately, the
wind had entangled his beard with the fishing-line; and so when a great
fish bit at the bait, the strength of the weak little fellow was not
able to draw it out, and the fish had the best of the struggle. The
Dwarf held on by the reeds and rushes which grew near, but to no
purpose, for the fish pulled him where it liked, and he must soon have
been drawn into the pond. Luckily just then the two Maidens arrived,
and tried to release the beard of the Dwarf from the fishing-line, but
both were too closely entangled for it to be done. So the Maiden pulled
out her scissors again and cut off another piece of the beard.

When the Dwarf saw this done he was in a great rage, and exclaimed,
"You donkey! that is the way to disfigure my face. Was it not enough to
cut it once, but you must now take away the best part of my fine beard?
I dare not show myself again now to my own people. I wish you had run
the soles off your boots before you had come here!" So saying he took
up a bag of pearls, which lay among the rushes, and, without speaking
another word, slipped off and disappeared behind a stone.

Not many days after this adventure, it chanced that the Mother sent the
two Maidens to the next town to buy thread, needles and pins, laces,
and ribbons. Their road passed over a common, on which, here and there,
great pieces of rock were lying about. Just over their heads they saw a
great bird flying round and round, and every now and then dropping
lower and lower, till at last it flew down behind a rock. Immediately
afterward they heard a piercing shriek, and, running up, they saw with
affright that the eagle had caught their old acquaintance, the Dwarf,
and was trying to carry him off. The compassionate children thereupon
laid hold of the little man, and held him fast till the bird gave up
the struggle and flew off.

As soon, then, as the Dwarf had recovered from his fright, he exclaimed
in his squeaking voice:

"Could you not hold me more gently? You have seized my fine brown coat
in such a manner that it is all torn and full of holes, meddling and
interfering rubbish that you are!" With these words he shouldered a bag
filled with precious stones, and slipped away to his cave among the
rocks.

The Maidens were now accustomed to his ingratitude, and so they walked
on to the town and transacted their business there. Comin