d. "You don't want to go into the
water?"

"I am not such a fool as that," cried the dwarf. "Don't you see the
detestable fish wants to pull me in?"

The little fellow had been sitting there fishing, and, unluckily, the
wind had entangled his beard with the line. When directly afterwards a
great fish bit at his hook the weak creature could not pull him out,
so the fish was pulling the dwarf into the water. It is true he caught
hold of all the reeds and rushes, but that did not help him much; he
had to follow all the movements of the fish, and was in imminent
danger of being drowned. The girls, coming at the right time, held him
fast and tried to get the beard loose from the line, but in
vain--beard and line were entangled fast together. There was nothing
to do but to pull out the scissors and to cut off the beard, in doing
which a little piece of it was lost. When the dwarf saw that, he cried
out: "Is that manners, you goose! to disfigure one's face so? Is it
not enough that you once cut my beard shorter? But now you have cut
the best part of it off, I dare not be seen by my people. I wish you
had had to run, and had lost the soles of your shoes!" Then he fetched
a sack of pearls that lay among the rushes, and, without saying a word
more, he dragged it away and disappeared behind a stone.

Soon after the mother sent the two girls to the town to buy cotton,
needles, cord, and tape. The road led them by a heath, scattered over
which lay great masses of rock. There they saw a large bird hovering
in the air; it flew round and round just above them, always sinking
lower and lower, and at last it settled down by a rock not far
distant. Directly after they heard a piercing, wailing cry. They ran
up, and saw with horror that the eagle had seized their old
acquaintance, the dwarf, and was going to carry him off. The
compassionate children instantly seized hold of the little man, held
him fast, and struggled so long that the eagle let his prey go.

When the dwarf had recovered from his first fright, he called out, in
his shrill voice: "Could not you deal rather more gently with me? You
have torn my thin coat all in tatters, awkward, clumsy creatures that
you are!" Then he took a sack of precious stones, and slipped behind
the rock again into his den. The girls, who were used to his
ingratitude, went on their way, and completed their business in the
town. As they were coming home again over the heath they surprised the
dwarf,