Snow-White was very fair, with blue eyes and long silky hair, while Rose-Red had dark curling hair, sparkling black eyes and rosy cheeks. The two children were very fond of each other and generally went about together.
Their mother was glad to have two such good and friendly children and, as long as they were together, she never feared that any harm would come to them. So they often went into the fields and the forest alone, either just for a walk or to pick flowers in the summer or berries or mushrooms in the autumn. Sometimes their mother would send them to collect a sack of firewood, or down to the stream to try to catch some fish for dinner. They were quite used to all the animals that lived in the forest: and it really seemed as though not even the fiercest creatures would do the pretty little sisters any harm. In fine weather, in the summer, they would sometimes even spend the night in the forest, curled up together on the soft moss that grew under the trees, and wouldn't go home till it was light again. Their mother was sure that as long as they were together they were quite safe, so she never either worried or scolded them if they did this.
In the winter it was different and the two little girls always stayed at home after dark. The winters are very cold in those parts, snow covered the ground for months, and their fun in the frosty time when the nights were long was to polish up the copper cooking-pans and the furniture till everything shone. After supper it would generally turn bitterly cold outside. But when the door was shut and bolted and when the firelight winked and blinked cosily in the warm kitchen and shone reflected in their polished pans, everything indoors looked cheerful. Their mother would often light a candle and the two girls would get out their spindles and, as they sat by the warm fireside, they would spin while she read to them out of a big book.
One evening when the frost was hard, as they were sitting like this, there came a loud knocking at the door.
"Open the door, Rose-Red,” said the mother, "that must be some poor traveller who has lost his way. Be quick, he must be half frozen, it's bitter cold outside!"
Rose-Red jumped up, pushed back the big bolt and began to open the door. But all of a sudden she screamed, for instead of a lost, shivering traveller, what should she see but a very large shaggy black bear! He peered round the door blinking in the light, and when Snow-White, too, caught sight of his broad black head, both the children were so frightened that they ran and hid behind their mother's bed. But now the bear began to speak in a deep hoarse voice.
"Don't be afraid!" he said. "Only let me come in and warm myself a little! I'm half frozen! I'll do you no harm!"
"Poor bear!" said the mother, putting down her spectacles. "Come in and lie down by the fire! Only mind you don't get too close and singe your fur."
So the huge shaggy creature pushed the door wide and came in and lay down, peaceably enough, while the mother got up and shut the door after him to keep out the cold.
"Snow-White! Rose-Red!" called she. "Come out! The bear is quite friendly!"
So the two little girls came out and stood looking rather doubtfully at the huge black creature.
"Children," said the bear in his deep growling voice, "could you please knock some of the snow out of my coat?"
Rather timidly they fetched the big house-brush and began to sweep the melting snow out of the bear's thick, heavy fur. It was like sweeping a very thick carpet! As they brushed, the bear kept turning and stretching himself, this way and that, as if he enjoyed it. Soon he seemed to be quite warm and dry again and began grunting contentedly, for all the world as if he were a great purring cat.
Now these two girls were used to animals, and though they had been so much frightened at first, this brushing and sweeping soon made them feel quite at home with the big, sleepy, clumsy creature, so that it wasn't long before they began to pound him with their fists and tug at his fur under pretence of getting more snow off, and at last they were climbing all over him as he lay. They got so rough that they almost knocked the breath out of the bear so that he grunted aloud, and then the two children laughed.
The bear took all this play in good part, and only said, now and then, “Leave me alive, children. Don't kill me!"
" Snowy- White and Rosy- Red,
Will you beat your lover dead?"
At last, when it got late and she had sent the children to bed, the mother banked up the fire with ashes, put out the candle, said goodnight to the bear, and, as she too went to bed, she told him that he might lie by the warm hearth till morning.
As soon as daylight came he seemed anxious to be off, so the children opened the door, and watched him trot across the snow and disappear into the forest.
And now, all that winter, every evening, the bear came at the same time, exactly as he had done on the first night. He knocked at the door, the children opened it for him, and he lay down on the hearth directly and let the children brush out the snow and play with him till he could bear it no longer and had to beg for mercy.
"Snowy- White and Rosy-Red,
Will you beat your lover dead?"
After a while, they all got so used to him that the door was never bolted till their large black friend had arrived.
At last, when spring came, and when the sun shone warm once more, and the soaked meadows grew green again, the bear said to Snow-White one morning:
"Now I must go away, and not come back for the whole summer."
'Where are you going, dear bear?" asked she.
"I must stay in the forest to look after my treasure,
” said he. "Some dwarfs are good, but the dwarfs that live round here are as spiteful as can be, and they're a pack of thieves into the bargain."
"Don't they steal in the winter?" asked Snow-White.
"No," said the bear. "Treasure is safe from them as long as the ground is frozen hard. They go below before it freezes to keep warm, and there they have to stay. They can't work their way through the hard ground, but as soon as the earth has thawed soft again, out they come, the spiteful thieving creatures! These dwarfs will always do a bad turn if they can. They steal anything valuable that they can lay their hands on, and once they've managed to carry a thing down into their caves, it doesn't often see daylight again."
Snow-White felt sorry to think that they wouldn't see their black friend for such a long time. However, as he seemed determined to go, she unbolted the door for him. As he was hurrying out he caught his fur on the latch and tore out a bit of his shaggy coat. It seemed to Snow-White as if, as he did it, she had seen something glittering like gold under the black fur, but she wasn't sure about it, for the bear was in such a hurry that he didn't turn to wait, but trotted off directly and was soon out of sight among the trees.
Now, they had of course had good fires all winter, so, by this time, the store of firewood which they kept dry under the broad eaves of the cottage had nearly all been used up. As the weather was fine, their mother sent the two children out into the forest to get some more.
They hadn't gone far when, in the distance, they saw a big tree lying on the ground, and thought they would be able to chop off some of the smaller branches. As they got nearer they saw that, close by the trunk, something small seemed to be jumping backwards and forwards on the grass. But it wasn't till they got quite close that they saw that this something wasn't a squirrel or a mouse but a little dwarf. He had a white beard as long as himself, and a bad-tempered, withered face, and they could see that what had happened was that his beard had somehow got caught in the tree. The angry little creature was jumping backwards and forwards like a chained-up dog, and, as they got nearer, he glared at them out of his two red eyes.
"What are you two standing there for?" he called out in a cross, squeaky voice. "Come and help me, you stupid creatures!"
"What's the matter, little man?" asked Rose-Red.
"What's that to you, you inquisitive thing?" answered he. The children said nothing, so he went on sulkily, "If you must know, I was trying to split a little bit from this tree for some wood for cooking. Big logs are no good, they get too hot! The little bit of food that one of us wants gets burnt up directly with thick logs! I’d just driven my wedge in nicely when out the wretched thing flew again and now the split has closed on my beautiful white beard! Can't you see?"
"I'm so sorry!" said Snow-White kindly, but neither of the girls could help smiling a little, because the cross little creature looked so funny.
"Don't stand there grinning and saying you're sorry, you silly milk-faced things!" screamed the dwarf. "Do something to help, and be quick about it!"
"Don't be so impatient, little man," said Snow-White. "I'll help you," and with that she pulled her scissors out of her pocket, and cut off just the tip of his long white beard.
No sooner did the dwarf feel himself free than he stooped down, and snatched up a bag of gold which lay at the roots of the tree. He lifted it on to his back without a word of thanks and all the time grumbling to himself:
"Fancy cutting off a piece of my fine beard! Wretched creatures!" Then, off he went, and indeed the last thing he did was to call down bad luck on the children who had helped him.
