beautiful
princes, Eliza's brothers, stood near her.

She uttered a loud cry, for, although they were very much changed, she
knew them immediately. She sprang into their arms and called them each
by name. Very happy the princes were to see their little sister again;
they knew her, although she had grown so tall and beautiful. They
laughed and wept and told each other how cruelly they had been treated
by their stepmother.

"We brothers," said the eldest, "fly about as wild swans while the sun
is in the sky, but as soon as it sinks behind the hills we recover our
human shape. Therefore we must always be near a resting place before
sunset; for if we were flying toward the clouds when we recovered our
human form, we should sink deep into the sea.

"We do not dwell here, but in a land just as fair that lies far across
the ocean; the way is long, and there is no island upon which we can
pass the night--nothing but a little rock rising out of the sea, upon
which, even crowded together, we can scarcely stand with safety. If the
sea is rough, the foam dashes over us; yet we thank God for this rock.
We have passed whole nights upon it, or we should never have reached our
beloved fatherland, for our flight across the sea occupies two of the
longest days in the year.

"We have permission to visit our home once every year and to remain
eleven days. Then we fly across the forest to look once more at the
palace where our father dwells and where we were born, and at the church
beneath whose shade our mother lies buried. The very trees and bushes
here seem related to us. The wild horses leap over the plains as we have
seen them in our childhood. The charcoal burners sing the old songs to
which we have danced as children. This is our fatherland, to which we
are drawn by loving ties; and here we have found you, our dear little
sister. Two days longer we can remain here, and then we must fly away to
a beautiful land which is not our home. How can we take you with us? We
have neither ship nor boat."

"How can I break this spell?" asked the sister. And they talked about it
nearly the whole night, slumbering only a few hours.

Eliza was awakened by the rustling of the wings of swans soaring above
her. Her brothers were again changed to swans. They flew in circles,
wider and wider, till they were far away; but one of them, the youngest,
remained behind and laid his head in his sister's lap, while she stroked
his wings. They remained to