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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 evening stork-papa stayed out very long; and when he came home he looked very bustling and important. "I've something very terrible to tell you," he said to the stork-mamma. "Let that be," she replied. "Remember that I'm hatching the eggs, and you might agitate me, and I might do them a mischief." "You must know it," he continued.
And then the two wept. And when stork-papa heard the story, he clapped with his beak so that it could be heard a long way off. "Treachery and lies!" he cried. "I should like to run my beak deep into their chests." "And perhaps break it off," interposed the stork-mamma; "and then you would look well. Think first of yourself, and then of your family, and all the rest does not concern you."
The body crumbled into dust, and a faded lotus-flower lay on the spot on which Helga had stood. "Now that is a new ending to the story," said stork-papa; "I really never expected it would end in this way, but it seems a very good ending." "And what will the young ones say to it, I wonder?" said stork-mamma. "Ah, that is a very important question," replied the stork.
We know, too, that the Marsh King has drawn her down to himself, and that to the loved ones at home she is forever dead. One of the wisest of them said, as the stork-mamma also said, "That in some way she would, after all, manage to succeed;" and so at last they comforted themselves with this hope, and would wait patiently; in fact, they could do nothing better.
"Now, at last, you will become something," whispered stork-mamma, "there's no doubt about that." "What should I become?" asked stork-papa. "What have I done? Nothing at all!" "You have done more than the rest! But for you and the youngsters the two princesses would never have seen Egypt again, or have effected the old man's cure. You will turn out something!
"What good will that do you?" retorted stork-mamma; "it will neither bring you a fair wind, nor a good meal." "The little nightingale, who is singing yonder in the tamarind grove, will soon be going north, too." Helga said she had often heard her singing on the wild moor, so she determined to send a message by her.
The stork brings good fortune they'll be obliged to acknowledge that at last." "You lay gold, and I lay eggs," said stork-mamma; "with you it is only once in a way, I lay eggs every year But no one appreciates what we do; I call it very mortifying." "But then we have a consciousness of our own worth, mother," replied stork-papa.
"Why, that is terrible," said the stork-mamma; "I feel as if I could hardly bear to hear any more, but you must tell me what happened next." "The princess wept and lamented aloud; her tears moistened the elder stump, which was really not an elder stump but the Marsh King himself, he who in marshy ground lives and rules.
"What they said was so confused, it was so wise and learned, that they immediately received rank and presents even the head cook received an especial mark of distinction probably for the soup." "And what did you receive?" asked stork-mamma. "Surely they ought not to forget the most important person of all, and you are certainly he!
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