they gazed at all this for a long time, at last they took heart, and knocked softly at the window. the old woman appeared to have been expecting them; she rose, and called out quite kindly, "come in,—i know you already." when they had entered the room, the old woman said, "you might have spared yourself the long walk, if you had not three years ago unjustly driven away your child, who is so good and lovable. no harm has come to her; for three years she has had to tend the geese; with them she has learnt no evil, but has preserved her purity of heart. you, however, have been sufficiently punished by the misery in which you have lived." then she went to the chamber and called, "come out, my little daughter." thereupon the door opened, and the princess stepped out in her silken garments, with her golden hair and her shining eyes, and it was as if an angel from heaven had entered.