The white bear gave to the girl a silver bell, and said to her, "Ring this bell when you want anything."
Every night, when all the lights had been put out, the bear came and talked with her. He slept in a bed in the great hall.
But it was so dark that she could never see him, or know how he looked, and when she took his paw, it was not like a paw. It was like a hand.
She wanted so much to see him! but he told her she must not.
At last she felt that she could not wait any longer.
So one night, when he was asleep, she lighted a candle and bent over and looked at him.
It was not a bear, but a prince, and the most beautiful prince that was ever seen!
She was so surprised that her hand began to shake, and three drops from the candle fell upon the coat of the prince.
"What have you done?" he cried. "You have brought trouble upon us. An ugly witch turned me into a bear, but every night I am myself again, and if you had waited only a year, and had not tried to find me out, I should have been free.
"Now I must go back to my other castle and marry an ugly princess with a nose three yards long."
The girl cried and cried and cried, but it did no good.
She asked if she could go with him, but he said that she could not.
"Tell me the way there," she said, "and I will find you."
"It is East of the Sun and West of the Moon, but there is no way to it," he said.
Next morning when the girl awoke, she found herself all alone in the deep woods.
She set out and walked and walked till she came to a very old woman sitting under a hill. The old woman had a golden apple in her hand.
The girl asked the woman to tell her the way to the castle of the prince who lived East of the Sun and West of the Moon.
The old woman didn't know, but she gave the girl the golden apple, and lent her a horse, and said to her:
"Ask my next neighbor. Maybe she will know. And when you find her, switch my horse under the left ear and tell him to be off home."
So the girl got on the horse and rode until she came to an old woman with a golden comb. This old woman answered her as the first had done, and lent her another horse and gave her the golden comb.
The girl got on the horse and rode till she came to another old woman spinning on a golden spinning wheel. This old woman did as the others had done, and lent her another horse and gave her the golden spinning wheel.