man?" asked Rose-red. "You stupid, inquisitive goose!" replied the
dwarf; "I wanted to split the tree, in order to get little chips of
wood for our kitchen fire; those thick logs that serve to make fires for
coarse, greedy people like yourselves quite burn up all the little food
we need. I had successfully driven in the wedge, and all was going well,
but the cursed wood was so slippery that it suddenly sprang out, and the
tree closed up so rapidly that I had no time to take my beautiful white
beard out, so here I am stuck fast, and I can't get away; and you silly,
smooth-faced, milk-and-water girls just stand and laugh! Ugh! what
wretches you are!"

The children did all in their power, but they couldn't get the beard
out; it was wedged in far too firmly. "I will run and fetch somebody,"
said Rose-red. "Crazy blockheads!" snapped the dwarf; "what's the good
of calling anyone else? You're already two too many for me. Does
nothing better occur to you than that?" "Don't be so impatient," said
Snow-white, "I'll see you get help," and taking her scissors out of
her pocket she cut off the end of his beard. As soon as the dwarf felt
himself free he seized a bag full of gold which was hidden among the
roots of the tree, lifted it up, and muttered aloud: "Curse these rude
wretches, cutting off a piece of my splendid beard!" With these words he
swung the bag over his back, and disappeared without as much as looking
at the children again.

Shortly after this Snow-white and Rose-red went out to get a dish of
fish. As they approached the stream they saw something which looked like
an enormous grasshopper springing toward the water as if it were going
to jump in. They ran forward and recognized their old friend the dwarf.
"Where are you going to?" asked Rose-red; "you're surely not going to
jump into the water?" "I'm not such a fool," screamed the dwarf. "Don't
you see that cursed fish is trying to drag me in?" The little man
had been sitting on the bank fishing, when unfortunately the wind had
entangled his beard in the line; and when immediately afterward a big
fish bit, the feeble little creature had no strength to pull it out; the
fish had the upper fin, and dragged the dwarf toward him. He clung on
with all his might to every rush and blade of grass, but it didn't help
him much; he had to follow every movement of the fish, and was in great
danger of being drawn into the water. The girls came up just at the
right moment, held hi