a short time afterwards the mother sent her children into the forest to get fire-wood. 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 backwards and forwards like a dog tied to a rope, and did not know what to do.