When spring
came, and everything was green out of doors, the bear said one morning
to Snow-white: "Now I must go away, and may not come again the whole
summer."
"Where are you going, dear Bear?" asked Snow-white.
"I must go into the wood, and guard my treasures from the bad dwarfs;
in winter, when the ground is frozen hard, they have to stay
underneath, and cannot work their way through, but now that the sun
has thawed and warmed the earth, they break through, come up, seek,
and steal: what is once in their hands, and lies in their caverns,
does not come so easily into daylight again." Snow-white was quite
sorrowful at parting, and as she unbolted the door for him, and the
bear ran out, the hook of the door caught him, and a piece of his skin
tore off; it seemed to Snow-white as if she had seen gold shining
through, but she was not sure. But the bear ran quickly away, and soon
disappeared behind the trees.
After some time, their mother sent the children into the wood to
collect faggots. They found there a large tree, which had been cut
down and lay on the ground, and by the trunk something was jumping up
and down, but they could not tell what it was. As they came nearer,
they saw that it was a dwarf, with an old withered face, and a
snow-white beard a yard long. The end of the beard was stuck fast in a
cleft in the tree, and the little fellow jumped about like a dog on a
rope, and did not know how to help himself.
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