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
for a quarter of an hour every evening. For this time we regain
our human forms, but then we are changed into swans again.'

Then the little sister cried and said, 'Can you not be freed?'

'Oh, no,' they said, 'the conditions are too hard. You must not
speak or laugh for six years, and must make in that time six
shirts for us out of star-flowers. If a single word comes out of
your mouth, all your labour is vain.' And when the brothers had
said this the quarter of an hour came to an end, and they flew
away out of the window as swans.

But the maiden had determined to free her brothers even if it
should cost her her life. She left the hut, went into the
forest, climbed a tree, and spent the night there. The next
morning she went out, collected star-flowers, and began to sew.