when spring had come and all outside was green, the bear said one morning to snow-white, "now i must go away, and cannot come back for the whole summer." "where are you going, then, dear bear?" asked snow-white. "i must go into the forest and guard my treasures from the wicked dwarfs. in the winter, when the earth is frozen hard, they are obliged to stay below and cannot work their way through; but now, when the sun has thawed and warmed the earth, they break through it, and come out to pry and steal; and what once gets into their hands, and in their caves, does not easily see daylight again."