."

They constantly ran together in the woods, collecting ripe berries;
but not a single animal would have injured them; quite the reverse,
they all felt the greatest esteem for the young creatures. The hare
came to eat parsley from their hands, the deer grazed by their side,
the stag bounded past them unheeding; the birds, likewise, did not
stir from the bough, but sang in entire security. No mischance befell
them; if benighted in the wood, they lay down on the moss to repose
and sleep till the morning; and their mother was satisfied as to their
safety, and felt no fear about them.

Once, when they had spent the night in the wood, and the bright
sunrise awoke them, they saw a beautiful child, in a snow-white
robe, shining like diamonds, sitting close to the spot where they had
reposed. She arose when they opened their eyes, and looked kindly at
them; but said no word, and passed from their sight into the wood.
When the children looked around they saw they had been sleeping on
the edge of a precipice, and would surely have fallen over if they had
gone forward two steps further in the darkness. Their mother said
the beautiful child must have been the angel who watches over good
children.

Snow-White and Rose-Red kept their mother's cottage so clean that it
gave pleasure only to look in. In summer-time Rose-Red attended to the
house, and every morning, before her mother awoke, placed by her bed
a bouquet which had in it a rose from each of the rose-trees. In
winter-time Snow-White set light to the fire, and put on the kettle,
after polishing it until it was like gold for brightness. In the
evening, when snow was falling, her mother would bid her bolt the
door, and then, sitting by the hearth, the good widow would read aloud
to them from a big book while the little girls were spinning. Close
by them lay a lamb, and a white pigeon, with its head tucked under its
wing, was on a perch behind.

[Illustration]

One evening, as they were all sitting cosily together like this, there
was a knock at the door, as if someone wished to come in.

"Make haste, Rose-Red!" said her mother; "open the door; it is surely
some traveller seeking shelter." Rose-Red accordingly pulled back the
bolt, expecting to see some poor man. But it was nothing of the kind;
it was a bear, that thrust his big head in at the open door. Rose-Red
cried out and sprang back, the lamb bleated, the dove fluttered her
wings and Snow-White hid herself behind