Once upon a time there was a poor widow who lived with her two little girls in a cottage by the edge of a forest.

In front of the cottage was small garden in which grew two rose-bushes. One bush bore white roses and the other red roses. These rose-bushes were older than the little girls, who were named after them.

The two children were alike in that they were both good and obedient and always busy and happy. They were quite different in their appearances and in their ways.

One sister was fair-haired and she was rather quiet and gentle. In the summer she liked to wear, in her hair, a rose from the white rose-bush. She was called Snow-White. The other sister was dark-haired. She loved to run about and skip and dance, and she was always lively and gay. She liked to wear, in her hair, a rose from the red rose-bush. Her name was Rose-Red.

Snow-White and Rose-Red were devoted to each other and often vowed they would stay together as long as they lived. They shared every- thing and, whenever they went out, they walked along hand in hand.

The children spent a good deal of their time playing in the forest. None of the wild animals there ever harmed them; they often came close to the little girls and seemed to trust them.

The wild hares used to eat from their hands, the deer grazed beside them and the stags leaped around them. The birds sat on the branches nearby and sang their sweetest songs.

If the children found themselves far from home as night came on, they would even spend the night in the forest. They used to lie down together on a bed of moss and sleep until morning.

No harm ever came to them. Their mother knew that she need have no fear for her children when they were in the forest.

Once, when Snow-White and Rose-Red had spent the night in the forest, they wakened in the morning to find a beautiful child in a shining white dress sitting beside them. The child smiled at them and then vanished. When the girls looked around, they found that they had been sleeping all night close to the edge of a steep cliff. They would certainly have fallen over the edge if they had moved at all.

When they told their mother about this, she said that the child they had seen must have been the guardian angel who watches over good children.

Snow-White and Rose-Red kept their mother's cottage so clean and tidy that it was a pleasure to go into it.

Every morning in the summer, Rose-Red gathered a bunch of fresh flowers and arranged them in a vase beside her mother's bed. Among the flowers there was always one white rose and one red rose from the bushes in their garden.

Every morning in the winter, Snow-White lit the fire and hung the kettle over it. The kettle was made of copper and Snow-White kept it polished so that it shone like gold.

In the winter evenings, when the snow was falling, the mother and her little girls gathered round the fire. While the two girls sat spinning, their mother read aloud to them from a large book. Beside them on the floor slept a white lamb, while a white dove perched nearby.

Suddenly, one evening, as they were sitting quietly by the fire, a loud knock was heard upon the door. "Open the door quickly, Rose-Red," said her mother. "Some poor traveller must have lost his way."

Rose-Red ran and pulled back the bolt, then flung open the door.

Into the room there walked, not a weary traveller, but a big, black bear. Rose-Red ran screaming towards her mother. Snow-White hid behind her mother's chair. The lamb began to bleat and the dove woke up fluttering.

"I have not come to hurt you," said the bear in a gentle voice. "I only want to warm myself by your fire, for I am half frozen."

"Poor bear," said the mother. "Come in and lie down by the fire but take care that you do not burn your furry coat."

Then she called to her children, "Snow-White! Rose-Red! You need not hide, for the bear will do you no harm."

So the children came timidly towards the fire and the lamb and dove drew nearer.

"Dear children, will you sweep the snow off my fur?" asked the bear. Then Snow-White and Rose-Red took it in turn to sweep the snow from the bear's coat. By the time they had finished, they had lost all their fear and the bear had become their playmate.

When bedtime came the mother said, "Stay here by the fire all night, gentle bear."

In the morning the little girls opened the door and the bear trotted away through the snow into the woods.

In the evening the bear returned and, when the door was opened, he walked to the hearth and lay down as if he had done this all his life. The next evening he came again and every evening afterwards for whole winter.

The children grew so fond of him that at night the door was never fastened until their big, black friend had arrived. Then they used to play together in front of the fire. The children would pull the bear's hair and put their feet upon his back and roll him over. when he growled at them, in fun, they laughed and rolled over with him.

The bear's nightly visits continued until the spring, when the forests became green again and the birds began to sing. Then one morning the bear said, "Goodbye, dear children, now that spring is here I must leave you and I shall not return all summer."

"Why must you leave us, dear bear, and where will you go?" asked Snow-white.

"I must stay in the forest, to guard my treasures from the wicked dwarfs," replied the bear. "In winter, the ground is frozen hard but now that the warm sun has melted the ice, the ground will become soft and the dwarfs will begin to dig again."

Snow-White and Rose-Red went sadly to unbolt the door for their dear friend.

As the bear passed through the doorway, a piece of his fur caught on the latch. Snow-White thought she saw a glimpse of gleaming gold beneath the fur, but she could not be certain about this.

The little girls stood in the doorway waving to their friend and thinking how much they would miss him in the evenings. The bear trotted quickly away and was soon hidden by the trees.

Some time afterwards, the mother sent her children into the forest to gather firewood. They came to a large tree lying on the ground. Something was jumping backwards and forwards over the trunk of the tree but at first they could not tell what it was.

As they came nearer, they saw that it was a tiny dwarf with an old, withered face and a long, white beard. He had tried to split the tree trunk with his little axe, and his long beard had become trapped in the crack he had made. He hopped over the trunk again and again and tugged furiously at his beard, but he could not pull it free.

When the dwarf caught sight of Snow-White and Rose-Red, he shouted, "You ugly creatures! Why do you stand there staring instead of trying to help me?"

Although the little man was so rude to them, the sisters still wanted to help him. They tried hard to pull his beard free but it was held firmly in the crack of the tree trunk.

So Rose-Red said, "I will run home and find someone to help you." "You silly goose!" screamed the dwarf. "What is the use of bringing other stupid creatures to stare! Can you not do something?"

"Let me see what I can do," said Snow-White. She took her scissors from her pocket and cut the dwarf's beard close to the tree trunk, so that he was free.

As soon as the dwarf found himself free, he picked up a bag of gold which was lying beside the tree and turned towards the girls. Not a word of thanks did he utter. Instead, all he could mumble was, "You wicked children! How dare you cut off a piece of my beautiful beard. Bad luck on you!"

Another day, some time later, Snow-White and Rose-Red went fishing by the banks of a stream. In the distance they saw a queer little figure hopping up and down as if it were about to jump into the stream. They ran forward and found that it was the dwarf again.

"What are you trying to do?" asked Rose-Red. "Surely you don't want to jump into the water?"

"I am not such a fool," screamed the dwarf. "Can't you see that this huge fish is dragging me into the stream?"

When the sisters looked more closely they could see that the little dwarf had hooked a large fish on the end of his fishing line. Unfortunately, at the same time his beard had become entangled with the line.

Every time the fish tried to jerk itself from the hook, the dwarf was dragged nearer to the water's edge. He was clutching at the reeds and grasses on the banks of the stream, but the fish was too strong for him. He was being pulled nearer and nearer to the water.

The children quickly grasped the dwarf and hung on to him with all their strength. But, try as they might, they could not disentangle his beard from the fishing line.

At last, Snow-White took out her scissors and cut off more than half his beard. Although the dwarf knew that she had done this to save his life, he flew into a terrible rage.

"How dare you disfigure me in this way?" he screamed. "First you cut off the end of my beard and now you cut off half of it. How can I let people see me when I look such a fright? I hope you have to run until you have no soles left on you shoes!"

Then he picked up a bag of pearls which he had hidden among the rushes, swung it over his shoulder, and disappeared.

Some time afterwards, Snow-White and Rose-Red were sent to town by their mother, to buy needles and thread. Their road led them across a bare stretch of land strewn with boulders of rock. There they noticed a large bird hovering over a certain spot. Suddenly the bird pounced down and the children heard pitiful cries.

They rushed forward and saw with horror that a huge eagle had the dwarf in his talons and was about to carry him off. Snow-White and Rose-Red caught hold of the little man's coat-tails and hung on with all their might. They pulled so hard that at last the eagle dropped the dwarf and flew away.

As soon as the dwarf had recovered from his fright, he turned on the sisters. "You clumsy clots!" he raged. "What do you mean by handling me so roughly? You have nearly torn my new coat off my back. Could you not have handled me more carefully?"

Then he picked up a sack of precious stones and disappeared behind one of the large boulders.

Snow-White and Rose-Red were by now used to his rudeness and did not expect thanks for their help. They went on their way to town, where they bought the needles and thread for their mother.

On their way home in the evening, they came across the dwarf once more, in the same place. He was kneeling on the ground, gazing at all his jewels which were spread around him. The jewels sparkled and gleamed with such fire that the children thought they had never seen anything so beautiful. They could not help but stop and stare.

Suddenly the dwarf looked up. "What are you standing there gaping at?" he yelled and his face grew bright red with anger.

At that moment a terrible growl was heard and a big black bear came shuffling out of the forest towards them.

The dwarf sprang to his feet, terrified. His angry, red face became white with fear. Before the dwarf had time to escape, the bear was beside him.

Then the dwarf, in a shaky voice, pleaded, "Dear Mr Bear, please spare my life I beg of you. I am so small, I would only be a mouthful for you to eat. If you are hungry, why don't you eat these two wicked girls? They are much plumper than I am. If you will spare me, I will give you all my treasure."

But the bear paid no attention to the words of the dwarf. He just lifted his fore-paw and with a single blow the dwarf lay dead on the ground.

The little girls were running off in fright, when the bear called after them, "Snow-White and Rose-Red, don't be afraid. Don't you know me?" The children recognised, with delight, the voice of their dear friend. They turned and ran towards him as he came trotting to meet them.

As they met, his fur fell from him and, instead of a shaggy bear,there stood before them a handsome young man, dressed in cloth of gold.

I am a king's son," he said. "That wicked dwarf robbed me of all my treasure and put a spell on me so that I was changed into a bear. Ever since then I have wandered through the forest, watching for a chance to kill him. Not until he was dead could the spell be lifted from me. Now I am free and he had received his just punishment."

Snow-White and Rose-Red were overjoyed when they heard this tale, as was their mother when the Prince went home with them.

A few years afterwards, Snow-White married the Prince and Rose-Red married his brother. The two Princes shared the treasure which the dwarf had hidden for so long.

They all lived happily together in a large castle. The mother of Snow-White and Rose-Red went to live with them. In the castle garden, below her window, were planted the two rose-bushes from her cottage garden. Every summer they bore the most beautiful white and red roses, just as they had done before.

(The End)