"Can't you protect me?" asked the little sister.
"No," they answered. "We can take off our swan-skins for only a quarter hour each evening. Only during that time do we have our human forms. After that we are again transformed into swans."
Crying, the little sister said, "Can you not be redeemed?"
"Alas, no," they answered. "The conditions are too difficult. You would not be allowed to speak or to laugh for six years, and in that time you would have to sew together six little shirts from asters for us. And if a single word were to come from your mouth, all your work would be lost."
After the brothers had said this, the quarter hour was over, and they flew out the window again as swans.