Page:Fairy tales and stories (Andersen, Tegner).djvu/307

Rh floating over the ocean. Yes, she saw continual changes before her eyes, and now, at last, she saw the real country she was going to, with its beautiful blue mountains, cedar-woods, cities, and palaces. Long before the sun had set she was sitting on the mountain before a large cave which was overgrown with delicate green creepers looking like embroidered carpets.

"Now we shall see what you will dream about here to-night," said the youngest brother, and showed her to her bedchamber.

"Heaven grant I may dream how I shall be able to save you!" she said, and this thought took entire possession of her mind.

She prayed so fervently to God for help that even in her sleep she went on praying. She thought she was flying high up in the air to Fata Morgana's palace; the fairy herself came to meet her; she was so beautiful and gorgeously attired, and yet she was very much like the old woman who had given her the berries in the forest, and told her about the swans with the golden crowns.

"Your brothers can be saved," she said; "but have you the courage and perseverance? Water, as you know, is softer than your delicate hands, but still it can change the shape of the hardest stones; but it does not feel the pain that your fingers will feel; it has no heart and does not suffer from the anxiety and anguish that you will have to endure. Do you see the nettle which I hold in my hand? Of this kind a great many grow round about the cave in which you sleep, but, mark you, only those which grow there and on the graves of the churchyards can be used; these you must gather, although they will blister your hands; tread the nettles with your feet and they will turn into flax, and this you must twist and then knit eleven shirts of mail with long sleeves. Throw these over the eleven swans, and the spell will be broken. But you must remember particularly that from the moment you begin your task till it is finished, even though it may take you years, you must not speak; the first word you speak will go like a deadly dagger to your brothers' hearts and kill them; on your silence depend their lives. Remember all this!"

And then she touched Elisa's hand with the nettle, which was like burning fire, and caused her to wake. It was broad daylight, and close to where she had slept lay a nettle like the one she had seen in her dream. She then fell on her knees, thanked the Lord, and went out of the cave to begin her task. With her delicate hands she took hold of the nasty nettles, which were like fire and blistered her hands and arms; yet she was quite willing to suffer it all, it only she were able to save her dear brothers. She trod every nettle with her bare feet and twisted the green flax from it.

When the sun had gone down her brothers came back; they grew frightened when they found her so silent, and thought it was some new witchery of the wicked stepmother's; but when they saw her hands they understood what she was doing for their sake. The youngest brother