They found a very high oak tree , and there they sat , turn about , keeping their eyes always fixed on the castle tower . On the twelfth day , when the turn came to Benjamin , he noticed a flag waving in the air , but alas ! it was not white , but blood red , the sign which told them they must all die . When the brothers heard this they were very angry , and said : ` Shall we forsooth suffer death for the sake of a wretched girl ? Let us swear vengeance , and vow that wherever and whenever we shall meet one of her sex , she shall die at our hands . ' Then they went their way deeper into the wood , and in the middle of it , where it was thickest and darkest , they came upon a little enchanted house which stood empty . ` Here , ' they said , ` let us take up our abode , and you , Benjamin , you are the youngest and weakest , you shall stay at home and keep house for us ; we others will go out and fetch food . ' So they went forth into the wood , and shot hares and roe-deer , birds and wood-pigeons , and any other game they came across . They always brought their spoils home to Benjamin , who soon learnt to make them into dainty dishes . So they lived for ten years in this little house , and the time slipped merrily away . In the meantime their little sister at home was growing up quickly . She was kind-hearted and of a fair countenance , and she had a gold star right in the middle of her forehead . One day a big washing was going on at the palace , and the girl looking down from her window saw twelve men 's shirts hanging up to dry , and asked her mother : ` Who in the world do these shirts belong to ? Surely they are far too small for my father ? ' And the Queen answered sadly : ` Dear child , they belong to your twelve brothers . ' ` But where are my twelve brothers ? ' said the girl . ' I have never even heard of them . ' ` Heaven alone knows in what part of the wide world they are wandering , ' replied her mother . Then she took the girl and opened the locked-up room ; she showed her the twelve coffins filled with shavings , and with the little pillow laid in each .
` These coffins , ' she said , ` were intended XXXXX your brothers , but they stole secretly away before you were born . '
In On So across at for into of upon with