e shirts. Then the little girl saw them and recognised
her brothers, and was very glad, and crept out from under the bed.

The brothers were not less rejoiced when they saw their little sister,
but their joy did not last long.

"You cannot stop here," said they to her, "this is a house belonging
to robbers; if they come home, and find you, they will kill you."

"Cannot you protect me?" asked the little sister.

"No," answered they, "we can only take off our swan's-skins for a
quarter of an hour every evening, and have our natural shape for that
time, but afterwards we are turned into swans again."

The little sister cried and said, "Cannot you be released?"

"Oh, no!" answered they, "the conditions are too hard. You must not
speak or laugh for six years, and must make for us six shirts out of
stitchweed during that time. If while you are making them a single
word comes from your mouth, all your work will be of no use." When her
brothers had said this, the quarter of an hour was over, and they
turned into swans again, and flew out of the window.

But the little girl made a firm resolution to release her brothers,
even if it cost her her life. She left the house, and went into the
middle of the wood, and climbed up in a tree and spent the night
there. Next morning she got down, collected a quantity of stitchweed,
and began to sew. She could not speak to any one, and she did not want
to laugh; so she sat, and only looked at her work.

When she had been there a long time, it happened that the king of the
country was hunting in the wood, and his hunters came to the tree on
which the little girl sat. They called to her, and said, "Who are
you?"

But she gave them no answer.

"Come down to us," said they, "we will not do you any harm."

But she only shook her head. As they kept teasing her with their
questions, she threw them down her gold necklace, and thought they
would be satisfied with that. But they did not leave off, so she threw
her sash down to them, and as that was no good, she threw down her
garters, and at last everything that she had on, and could spare; so
that she had nothing left but her shift. But the hunters would not be
sent away, and climbed up the tree and brought down the little girl
and took her to the king.

The king asked, "Who are you? what were you doing up in the tree?"

But she did not answer. He asked it in all the languages that he knew,
but she remained as dumb as a fish. But, beca