Later on, seven chattering crows pushed open the front door and sat around the kitchen table.
"Someone has eaten some of our soup!" "But who would ever come up here?" answered another.
"We're condemned to be alone on these mountains forever." "Nobody will ever come to look for us." When they finished eating, the crows pulled on their sleeping caps, went upstairs and found the little girl in one of their beds.
"But this is . ." one of the crows said, after delicately touching her braid with his beak.
"That's right, this is our sister," they said all together. At that moment the little girl opened her eyes and when she saw herself surrounded by the big and ugly birds, she was frightened. But out of one ugly beak spoke a kind voice: "Are you our sister?" The little girl got up and opened her arms: "I've found you! I've found you! We're together again at last!" The seven crows looked at her sadly and one said: "Don't we frighten and disgust you?" The girl hugged every one of them.
"I love you very much and even if you've turned into crows you're still my brothers." When they heard this, the crows were moved and began crying.
"Why don't you come back home with me?" she asked.
"We would like very much to come back," they all answered together, "and we regret our evil ways. But how can we show ourselves to our parents like this?" "Mother would accept you all the same, I am sure of it. She keeps crying and thinking of you," the little girl answered. The little girl insisted and convinced her brothers to come home with her.
"There's no need to walk back up and down the mountains like you did. We will fly there and carry you," they said. As they were about to leave, the youngest brother said, "Wait a minute! Let's bring Mother all the sparkling stones we found as a present!" "They are really beautiful," the little girl said when she saw the bag with her brothers' treasure. "Do you like them? They might be precious, you know. When we crows see something sparkle, we cannot help ourselves and we take it." "This one sparkles more than the rest, maybe it's a diamond." They finally left.
The world was very different from above. At first the little girl was scared, but the seven crows held her firmly and flew safely. Then they saw the valley, the stream and the little house where they were born. The courtyard was deserted and when they landed the little girl said, "You wait here and I'll go and call Mother." She silently went into the kitchen and saw the poor woman leaning on the table and weeping. She hugged her and kissed her saying, "Mother I'm back and I have a big surprise for you." "You're here at last! I thought I'd lost you forever." The poor woman was so happy and moved that she didn't know whether to laugh or to cry. In the courtyard she found the crows.
"My poor sons! I missed you so much. I am so sorry to have uttered that curse. A mother should never say such things against her children." "We regret all we have done too. We very much regret our wickedness." They were all crying over the past when, suddenly, another miracle occurred. The seven brothers became boys again! The father, who had heard voices, ran out of the house.
"Thank God I can see my children again," he cried as he hugged his sons and his daughter. The years passed and the crows' hats became the only memory of this moving story. The stones the crows had brought to their mother turned out to be precious after all, and the treasure allowed the family to live a better future.
