who had emptied his sack of precious stones on a little clean
place, and had not thought that any one would come by there so late.
The evening sun shone on the glittering stones, which looked so
beautiful in all their colors that the children could not help
standing still to gaze.

"Why do you stand there gaping?" cried the dwarf, his ash-colored
face turning vermilion with anger.

With these cross words he was going away when he heard a loud roaring,
and a black bear trotted out of the woods towards them. The dwarf
sprang up terrified, but he could not get to his lurking-hole
again--the bear was already close upon him. Then he called out in
anguish:

"Dear Mr. Bear, spare me, and you shall have all my treasures; look at
the beautiful precious stones that lie there. Give me my life; for
what do you want with a poor thin little fellow like me? You would
scarcely feel me between your teeth. Rather seize those two wicked
girls; they will be tender morsels for you, as fat as young quails;
pray, eat them at once."

The bear, without troubling himself to answer, gave the malicious
creature one single stroke with his paw, and he did not move again.
The girls had run away, but the bear called after them: "Snow-white
and Rose-red, do not be frightened; wait, I will go with you."
Recognizing the voice of their old friend, they stood still, and when
the bear came up to them his skin suddenly fell off; and behold he was
not a bear, but a handsome young man dressed all in gold.

"I am a king's son," said he; "I was changed by the wicked dwarf, who
had stolen all my treasures, into a wild bear, and obliged to run
about in the wood until I should be freed by his death. Now he has
received his well-deserved punishment."

So they all went home together to the widow's cottage, and Snow-white
was married to the prince and Rose-red to his brother. They divided
between them the great treasures which the dwarf had amassed. The old
mother lived many quiet and happy years with her children; but when
she left her cottage for the palace she took the two rose-trees with
her, and they stood before her window and bore every year the most
beautiful roses--one white and the other red.

THE WILD SWANS

Far away, where the swallows take refuge in winter, lived a king who
had eleven sons and one daughter, Elise. The eleven brothers--they
were all princes--used to go to school with stars on their breasts and
swords at their sides. The