farewell to the old woman, and went beside the river to the
place where the stream flowed out to the great open ocean.

The whole glorious sea lay before the young girl's eyes, but not one
sail appeared on its surface, and not a boat was to be seen. How was she
to proceed? She looked at the innumerable little pebbles on the shore;
the water had worn them all round. Glass, ironstones, everything that
was there had received its shape from the water, which was much softer
than even her delicate hand.

"It rolls on unweariedly, and thus what is hard becomes smooth. I will
be just as unwearied. Thanks for your lesson, you clear rolling waves;
my heart tells me that one day you will lead me to my dear brothers."

On the foam-covered sea-grass lay eleven white swan feathers, which she
collected into a bunch. Drops of water were upon them--whether they were
dewdrops or tears nobody could tell. Solitary it was there on the
strand, but she did not feel it, for the sea showed continual
changes--more in a few hours than the lovely lakes can produce in a
whole year. Then a great black cloud came. It seemed as if the sea would
say: "I can look angry, too." And then the wind blew, and the waves
turned their white side outward. But when the clouds gleamed red and the
winds slept, the sea looked like a rose-leaf; sometimes it became green,
sometimes white. But however quietly it might rest, there was still a
slight motion on the shore; the water rose gently like the breast of a
sleeping child.

When the sun was just about to set, Eliza saw eleven wild swans, with
crowns on their heads, flying toward the land: they swept along one
after the other, so that they looked like a long white band. Then Eliza
descended the slope and hid herself behind a bush. The swans alighted
near her and flapped their great white wings.

As soon as the sun had disappeared beneath the water, the swan's
feathers fell off, and eleven handsome Princes, Eliza's brothers, stood
there. She uttered a loud cry, for although they were greatly altered,
she knew and felt that it must be they. And she sprang into their arms
and called them by their names; and the Princes felt supremely happy
when they saw their little sister again; and they knew her, though she
was now tall and beautiful. They smiled and wept; and soon they
understood how cruel their stepmother had been to them all.

"We brothers," said the eldest, "fly about as wild swans as long as the
sun is in t