“What is keeping my sons?” she cried at last. “Go out to the gate, husband, and see if they are coming.”
The man went out and soon returned bringing back word that some one had changed the tokens.
“The spindle that I put on the gatepost is gone,” he said, “and in its place is an ax.”
“Alas!” cried the poor mother, “some evil creature has done this to spite us! Oh, if we could only get word to our sons of the little sister they were so eager to have!”
But there was no way to reach them for no one knew the way they had gone.
In a short time the husband died and the poor woman, abandoned by her nine sons, had only her little daughter left. She named the child Kerttu. Kerttu was a dear little girl and her face was as beautiful as her heart was good. Whenever she found her mother weeping alone she tried to comfort her and, as she grew older, she wanted to know the cause of her mother’s grief. At last the mother told her about her nine brothers and how they had gone away never to return owing to the trick of some evil creature.
“My poor mother!” she cried, “how sorry I am that I am the innocent cause of your loss! Let me go out into the world and find my brothers! When once they hear the truth they will gladly come home to you to care for you in your old age!”
At first the mother would not consent to this.
“You are all I have,” she said, “and I should indeed be miserable and lonely if anything happened you!”
But Kerttu continued to weep every time she thought of her poor brothers driven unnecessarily from home and at last the mother, realizing that she would nevermore be happy unless she were allowed to go in search of them, gave up opposing her.