And little Helga stood outside in the verandah; but all the torches outside were extinguished, all the lights in the wedding chamber were gone, the storks were gone, no guests to be seen, no bridegroom; everything seemed to be blown away in three short minutes. Then Helga was filled with terror, and she went through the great, empty hall, into the next room. Strange soldiers were sleeping there. She opened a side door that led into her apartment, and when she expected to stand there, she found herself outside in the garden; but it was not like this before--the heaven was red and shining, it was towards daybreak. Only three minutes in Heaven, and a whole night had passed on the earth! * * * * * Then she saw the storks; she cried to them, speaking their language, and father-stork turned his head, listened, and drew near her. ‘You are speaking our language!’ said he; ‘what do you want? Why do you come here, you strange woman?’ ‘It is I! it is Helga! Don’t you know me? Three minutes ago we were talking together, yonder in the verandah.’ ‘That is a mistake!’ said the stork; ‘you must have dreamt it!’ ‘No, no!’ she said, and reminded him of the Viking’s stronghold and the moor, and of the journey hither! Then father-stork blinked his eyes: ‘That is a very old story; I have heard it from my great-great-great-grandmother’s time! Yes, certainly, there was such a princess in Egypt from the land of Denmark, but she disappeared on the night of her wedding many hundreds of years ago, and never came back again. That you may read for yourself on the monument in the garden; there are sculptured both swans and storks, and at the top you yourself stand in white marble.’ It was indeed so. Little Helga saw it, understood it, and fell on her knees. The sun broke forth, and as in former times at the touch of its beams the toad form disappeared and the beautiful shape was seen, so she raised herself now at the baptism of light in a form of brighter beauty, purer than the air, a ray of light--to the Father of all. Her body sank in dust; there lay a faded lotus-flower where she had stood. * * * * * ‘Then that was a new ending to the story!’ said the father-stork. ‘I had not at all expected it! but I rather like it!’ ‘I wonder what my young ones will say about it!’ said the mother-stork. ‘Yes, that is certainly the principal thing!’ answered the father. [Illustration] [Illustration: THE SWALLOW SOARED HIGH INTO THE AIR] [Illustration: ‘THOU POOR LITTLE THING!’ SAID THE FIELD-MOUSE] TOMMELISE Once upon a time there lived a young wife who longed exceedingly to possess a little child of her own, so she went to an old witch-woman and said to her, ‘I wish so very much to have a child, a little tiny child; won’t you give me one, old mother?’