said the mother.
  "Is it myself that I see represented on a white shield?" cried thedaughter.
  Then they came nearer to each other in a fond embrace. Themother's heart beat quickly, and she understood the quickenedpulses. "My child!" she exclaimed, "the flower of my heart- my lotusflower of the deep water!" and she embraced her child again andwept, and the tears were as a baptism of new life and love forHelga. "In swan's plumage I came here," said the mother, "and here Ithrew off my feather dress. Then I sank down through the waveringground, deep into the marsh beneath, which closed like a wall aroundme; I found myself after a while in fresher water; still a powerdrew me down deeper and deeper. I felt the weight of sleep upon myeyelids. Then I slept, and dreams hovered round me. It seemed to me asif I were again in the pyramids of Egypt, and yet the waving eldertrunk that had frightened me on the moor stood ever before me. Iobserved the clefts and wrinkles in the stem; they shone forth instrange colors, and took the form of hieroglyphics. It was the mummycase on which I gazed. At last it burst, and forth stepped thethousand years' old king, the mummy form, black as pitch, black as theshining wood-snail, or the slimy mud of the swamp. Whether it wasreally the mummy or the Marsh King I know not. He seized me in hisarms, and I felt as if I must die. When I recovered myself, I found inmy bosom a little bird, flapping its wings, twittering and fluttering.The bird flew away from my bosom, upwards towards the dark, heavycanopy above me, but a long, green band kept it fastened to me. Iheard and understood the tenor of its longings. Freedom! sunlight!to my father! Then I thought of my father, and the sunny land of mybirth, my life, and my love. Then I loosened the band, and let thebird fly away to its home- to a father. Since that hour I haveceased to dream; my sleep has been long and heavy, till in this veryhour, harmony and fragrance awoke me, and set me free."
  The green band which fastened the wings of the bird to themother's heart, where did it flutter now? whither had it beenwafted? The stork only had seen it. The band was the green stalk,the cup of the flower the cradle in which lay the child, that now inblooming beauty had been folded to the mother's heart.
  And while the two were resting in each other's arms, the old storkflew round and round them in narrowing circles, till at length he flewaway swiftly to his nest, and fetched away the two suits of swan'sfeathers, which he had preserved there for many years. Then hereturned to the mother and daughter, and threw the swan's plumage overthem; the feathers immediately closed around them, and they rose upfrom the earth in the form of two white swans.
  "And now we can converse with pleasure," said the stork-papa;"we can understand one another, although the beaks of birds are sodifferent in shape. It is very fortunate that you came to-night.To-morrow we should have been gone. The mother, myself and thelittle ones, we're about to fly to the south. Look at me now: I aman old friend from the Nile, and a mother's heart contains more thanher beak. She always said that the princess would know how to helpherself. I and the young ones carried the swan's feathers over here,and I am glad of it now, and how lucky it is that I am here still.When the day dawns we shall start with a great company of otherstorks. We'll fly first, and you can follow in our track, so thatyou cannot miss your way. I and the young ones will have an eye uponyou."
  "And the lotus-flower which I was to take with me," said theEgyptian princess, "is flying here by my side, clothed in swan'sfeathers. The flower of my heart will travel with me; and so theriddle is solved. Now for home!