Snow White and Rose Red

Two sisters named Snow White and Rose Red, as different in temperament as their names suggested but devoted to each other completely, lived with their poor widowed mother in a small cottage at the edge of a forest. One winter night, a great bear knocked at their door seeking warmth, and though frightened at first, the sisters welcomed him in once he promised gently that he meant no harm, and he returned each evening all winter to warm himself by their fire, playing kindly with the girls before departing each morning.

In spring, the bear left for the summer, and the sisters, wandering the forest, repeatedly encountered a bad-tempered, ungrateful dwarf trapped in one mishap after another — his beard caught in a tree stump, tangled in fishing line, seized by an eagle — and each time the sisters freed him at some cost to themselves, only to be cursed and insulted for their trouble instead of thanked, the dwarf furious each time that they had cut off a bit of his precious beard to free him.

On their final encounter, they found the dwarf cowering before the very bear who had sheltered with them all winter, about to be caught for the treasure he had been secretly guarding and hoarding all along. The bear struck the wicked dwarf down and, in that instant, transformed into a handsome prince — revealing that the dwarf had long ago cursed him into bear form and stolen his rightful treasure, a curse broken only by the dwarf's own death. The prince, grateful beyond words for the sisters' unknowing winter kindness, married Rose Red, while his brother married Snow White, the sisters' patient decency toward even an ungrateful stranger having quietly protected them all along without their ever knowing why.