A great many years ago there was a woman who had seven sons and one daughter, The daughter was much younger than her brothers. Their father was a careful and hard-working craftsman and was never in want of work. He earned enough to feed and clothe all his children, and also enough to enable his wife, by good management, to lay by a little against sickness and accidents.
He died in the prime of life, however, and his widow soon fell into distress and difficulty, for she was quite unable to earn enough to feed and clothe eight children. The seven boys were growing fast. Every day they seemed to be more and more hungry and unruly. The widow tried hard to bear her troubles and bring up her children to honest and decent people, but the boys did just as they liked.
At last she lost patience with them. One day, when they had vexed and grieved her more than usual, she exclaimed, "Oh, I wish you were seven black crows that I could drive away from here!"
She had hardly said it when her seven sons were changed into black crows and flew away.
The mother now lived alone with her young daughter. They were able to work quietly and steadily, and earned more than they needed.
The daughter grew up and became a pretty girl. As years rolled on, she longed to see the seven brothers again, and her mother did too. They often talked of them and how happy all could be if the boys could return and be with them.
One day the girl said, "Mother, let me go and search my brothers to bring them back. Then they can support you in your old age too."
"Oh, dear daughter!" answered the mother, "I cannot keep you from such a good thing, so go along."
The girl set out after putting on her little finger the ring she had worn when her seven brothers had first gone away. On she wandered, finding no trace of her brothers until she came to a high mountain. On the top of it she thought she saw a little hut. As she looked at intently at it she thought, "Perhaps my brothers live there."
At the same moment she saw seven black crows fly from the hut, and thought she had found them. Joyfully she began to climb the hill, but the path up was strewn with slippery stones and covered with moss, so that she slipped back almost every step she took.
The girl sighed and wished that she had goose wings that she might fly up. That was a vain wish, however. But at last, after much toil she got up anyway and found the little hut. She walked in. Within she found seven little tables, seven little stools and seven little beds. In the oven stood seven little dishes, Roast fowls and broiled eggs were laid on them.
The girl was weary and hungry with her long journey and was glad enough to rest a while. Taking the seven dishes out of the oven, she ate a little piece from each, sat down on each of the seven stools and lay for a little while in each of the beds. In the seventh bed she fell fast asleep. She lay there when the brothers came back.
They came flying in through the door, all of them, took their dishes from the oven and sat down to eat. All saw at once that a piece of each dish was missing, but none of them said anything. When they had eaten, they headed for their beds. Again, each crow found his bed tumbled.
When the seventh looked at his, he raised a loud cry, "There is a lovely girl in my bed! Come and look!"
The others came at once and saw the sleeping girl. They were astonished.
"Is this our sister?" asked one crow of the other, and one exclaimed.
"Yes, yes, it is! This is the ring that she used to wear on her thumb and now has on her little finger."
Then they all kissed their sister and talked together, but she was so fast asleep that all their noise did not wake her.
At last she opened, her eyes and saw her seven black brothers sitting round the bed. "Ah, dear brothers, at last I have found you! How glad I am to see you!" she began. "It was a long, wearisome journey to find you. And now, Mother gladly welcomes you back."
The seven brothers wept bitterly while their sister was speaking and told her that they had never stopped grieving for losing their home. Living as crows had been very miserable until they built themselves a house, and they had often suffered terribly from hunger.
The sister said once again that when their mother saw them again, she could bring them back to their human forms again.
Before they started for home the crows opened a strong oak box and gave to their sister, saying, "Take these beautiful gold rings and bright diamonds along with you in your apron. We saw them and picked them up up here and there because they were glittering and shiny, but now they may bring us food and clothing."
The sister did as her brothers asked her. As soon as they reached their childhood home, the seven crows flew in at the window of the room where their mother was sitting, and their sister soon joined them. Their mother granted their prayer while tears of joy were running down her cheeks. At once they became humans again. They were now seven handsome, well-made youths. When they had sold a jewel, the mother and sister could sew them clothes.
Soon after each of these young men got a fair wife each, and built a new, very large house for all of them for what they got for a handful of other jewels. And when the sister married soon after, they would not let her to live far away from them, but had build a house for her and her husband very close by. Their old mother found it good to move in with her daughter in the newly built house. There she could also pamper her grandchildren, herself cared for by her daughter and seven sons.
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