Some time afterwards, Snow-white and Rose red wished to catch some
fish for dinner. As they came near to the stream, they saw that
something like a grasshopper was jumping towards the water, as if it
were going to spring in. They ran on and recognised the dwarf.
"Where are you going?" asked Rose-red, "You don't want to go into the
water?"
"I am not such a fool as that," cried the dwarf, "Don't you see the
detestable fish wants to pull me in?"
The little fellow had been sitting there fishing, and, unluckily, the
wind had entangled his beard with the line. When directly afterwards a
great fish bit at his hook, the weak creature could not pull him out,
so the fish was pulling the dwarf into the water. It is true he caught
hold of all the reeds and rushes, but that did not help him much; he
had to follow all the movements of the fish, and was in imminent
danger of being drowned. The girls, coming at the right time, held him
fast and tried to get the beard loose from the line, but in
vain--beard and line were entangled fast together. There was nothing
to do but to pull out the scissors and to cut off the beard, in doing
which a little piece of it was lost. When the dwarf saw that, he cried
out: "Is that manners, you goose! to disfigure one's face so? Is it
not enough that you once cut my beard shorter? But now you have cut
the best part of it off, I dare not be seen by my people.
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