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A short time afterwards the mother sent her children into the

forest to get firewood. There they found a big tree which lay

felled on the ground, and close by the trunk something was

jumping backwards and forwards in the grass, but they could not

make out what it was. When they came nearer they saw a dwarf with

an old withered face and a snow-white beard a yard long. The end

of the beard was caught in a crevice of the tree, and the little

fellow was jumping about like a dog tied to a rope, and did not

know what to do.