witch-mother, sewed
an enchantment in each of them.

And when the King had ridden off she took the little shirts and went
into the wood, and the reel showed her the way. The children, who saw
someone coming in the distance, thought it was their dear father coming
to them, and sprang to meet him very joyfully. Then she threw over each
one a little shirt, which when it had touched their bodies changed them
into swans, and they flew away over the forest. The Queen went home
quite satisfied, and thought she had got rid of her step-children; but
the girl had not run to meet her with her brothers, and she knew nothing
of her.

The next day the King came to visit his children, but he found no one
but the girl.

'Where are your brothers?' asked the King.

'Alas! dear father,' she answered, 'they have gone away and left me all
alone.' And she told him that looking out of her little window she had
seen her brothers flying over the wood in the shape of swans, and she
showed him the feathers which they had let fall in the yard, and which
she had collected. The King mourned, but he did not think that the Queen
had done the wicked deed, and as he was afraid the maiden would also be
taken from him, he wanted to take her with him. But she was afraid of
the stepmother, and begged the King to let her stay just one night
more in the castle in the wood. The poor maiden thought, 'My home is no
longer here; I will go and seek my brothers.' And when night came she
fled away into the forest. She ran all through the night and the next
day, till she could go no farther for weariness. Then she saw a little
hut, went in, and found a room with six little beds. She was afraid to
lie down on one, so she crept under one of them, lay on the hard floor,
and was going to spend the night there. But when the sun had set she
heard a noise, and saw six swans flying in at the window. They stood on
the floor and blew at one another, and blew all their feathers off, and
their swan-skin came off like a shirt. Then the maiden recognised her
brothers, and overjoyed she crept out from under the bed. Her brothers
were not less delighted than she to see their little sister again, but
their joy did not last long.

'You cannot stay here,' they said to her. 'This is a den of robbers; if
they were to come here and find you they would kill you.'

'Could you not protect me?' asked the little sister.

'No,' they answered, 'for we can only lay aside our swan skins f