ng there? Can't you come and try to help me?"

"What were you doing, little fellow?" inquired Rose-Red.

"Stupid, inquisitive goose!" replied the dwarf; "I meant to split the
trunk, so that I could chop it up for kitchen sticks; big logs would
burn up the small quantity of food we cook, for people like us do not
consume great heaps of food, as you heavy, greedy folk do. The bill-hook
I had driven in, and soon I should have done what I required; but the
tool suddenly sprang from the cleft, which so quickly shut up again that
it caught my handsome white beard; and here I must stop, for I cannot
set myself free. You stupid pale-faced creatures! You laugh, do you?"

In spite of the dwarf's bad temper, the girls took all possible pains to
release the little man, but without avail, the beard could not be moved,
it was wedged too tightly.

"I will run and get someone else," said Rose-Red.

"Idiot!" cried the dwarf. "Who would go and get more people? Already
there are two too many. Can't you think of something better?"

"Don't be so impatient," said Snow-White. "I will try to think." She
clapped her hands as if she had discovered a remedy, took out her
scissors, and in a moment set the dwarf free by cutting off the end of
his beard.

Immediately the dwarf felt that he was free he seized a sack full of
gold that was hidden amongst the tree's roots, and, lifting it up,
grumbled out, "Clumsy creatures, to cut off a bit of my beautiful beard,
of which I am so proud! I leave the cuckoos to pay you for what you
did." Saying this, he swung the sack across his shoulder, and went off,
without even casting a glance at the children.

Not long afterwards the two sisters went to angle in the brook, meaning
to catch fish for dinner. As they were drawing near the water they
perceived something, looking like a large grasshopper, springing towards
the stream, as if it were going in. They hurried up to see what it might
be, and found that it was the dwarf. "Where are you going?" said
Rose-Red. "Surely you will not jump into the water?"

"I'm not such a simpleton as that!" yelled the little man. "Don't you
see that a wretch of a fish is pulling me in?"

The dwarf had been sitting angling from the side of the stream when, by
ill-luck, the wind had entangled his beard in his line, and just
afterwards a big fish taking the bait, the unamiable little fellow had
not sufficient strength to pull it out; so the fish had the advantage,
and was