recipe? that was a point they could not get over. At last they were
decided upon the point that help must come by means of the princess,
through her who clave to her father with her whole soul; and at last a
method had been devised whereby help could be procured in this
dilemma. Yes, it was already more than a year ago since the princess
had sallied forth by night, when the brief rays of the new moon were
waning: she had gone out to the marble sphinx, had shaken the dust
from her sandals, and gone onward through the long passage which leads
into the midst of one of the great pyramids, where one of the mighty
kings of antiquity, surrounded by pomp and treasure, lay swathed in
mummy cloths. There she was to incline her ear to the breast of the
dead king; for thus, said the wise men, it should be made manifest to
her where she might find life and health for her father. She had
fulfilled all these injunctions, and had seen in a vision that she was
to bring home from the deep lake in the northern moorland--the very
place had been accurately described to her--the lotos flower which
grows in the depths of the waters, and then her father would regain
health and strength.

And therefore she had gone forth in the swan's plumage out of the land
of Egypt to the open heath, to the woodland moor. And the stork-papa
and stork-mamma knew all this; and now we also know it more accurately
than we knew it before. We know that the marsh king had drawn her down
to himself, and know that to her loved ones at home she is dead for
ever. One of the wisest of them said, as the stork-mamma said too,
"She will manage to help herself;" and at last they quieted their
minds with that, and resolved to wait and see what would happen, for
they knew of nothing better that they could do.

"I should like to take away the swan's feathers from the two faithless
princesses," said the stork-papa; "then, at any rate, they will not be
able to fly up again to the wild moor and do mischief. I'll hide the
two swan-feather suits up there, till somebody has occasion for them."

"But where do you intend to hide them?" asked stork-mamma.

"Up in our nest in the moor," answered he. "I and our young ones will
take turns in carrying them up yonder, on our return, and if that
should prove too difficult for us, there are places enough on the way
where we can conceal them till our next journey. Certainly, one suit
of swan's feathers would be enough for the princess, but