The country was beautiful. There were woods along the sides of the fields.
One day a duck was sitting on her eggs in these woods. She sat there for a long time.
At last the eggs opened and ducklings came out of them.
"Tchick, tchick!" the ducklings said as they put their heads outside the eggs.
"Quack, quack" said the mother duck.
The mother duck got up. "They aren't all here,"she said . The largest egg hasn't broken. How long must I wait? I don't want to sit here all day." Then she sat down again.
The big egg opened at last. "Tchick, tchick." said the duckling from it, and it fell out. But oh!how big and ugly it was! The duck looked at it "That's a very big duckling, "she said."None of the others are at all like it."

The next day the mother duck took all the ducklings down to the river. She went into the water."Quack, quck,"she cried, and one duckling after another jumped in.The water went over their heads, but they all came up again. They were all there, even the ugly one.
"It can swim. It is a good duckling: it is my own child," the mother duck said. "It is very pretty when you look at it now. Quack , quack, come with me!" I'll take you to see all the other ducks. But stay near me, or someone may step on you. Don't go too near the cat."
So they went the see the other ducks in the garden.
"Stay near me and speak to the old duck over there. She is the greatest of the ducks here." the duck said to her children.
The ducklings did as they were told. But the other ducks who were in the garden looked at them and said,"Now there are too many of us.And look how ugly that one is. We must send him away."
The one of the ducks ran to drive him away.
"Don't touch him," the mother duck said."He is doing nothing to hurt you."
"He isn't beautiful, but he is a very good child"the mother duck told the other ducks."He swims very well. I think he will grow like the others in time. He stayed so long in his egg; that is why he is not the same as the others."
But the ducks and hens were unkind to the poor duckling who was the last out of its egg."It's so big," they all said. The poor ugly duckling didn't know what to do: he was very unhappy because he was so ugly.
After the first day he grew more and more unhappy. No one wanted to speak to him or to go near him. Even his brothers and sisters were not kind to him. They said," I wish the cat would catch you, you ugly duckling!" And even the mother duck said."I wish you were far away!"
The ugly duckling ran out of the garden. The little birds in the trees were very afraid. "That's because I'm so ugly,"the duckling thought. He shut his eyes and ran on. At last he came to a big field where some wild ducks lived. He lay down and stayed there all night.
In the morning the wild ducks saw the duckling. "Who are you ?" they asked. The ugly duckling couldn't answer.
Poor thing! All he wanted was to sit in the long grass and drink some water.
He stayed there for two days. Then two wild geese came.
"You are very ugly but we like you,"they said. "Will you come with us and be a wild bird?"

BANG! It was the noise made by a gun. The two wild geese fell down dead in the long grass.BANG! It was the noise of a gun again. A lot of wild geese flew up into the sky from the long grass. BANG!
There were men with guns. They were shooting the wild geese. They were on all sides of the duckling; some were even sitting in the trees. Their dogs ran through the long trass.How afraid the duckling was! He wanted to hide his head so that he couldn't see.
Just then a big dog came near him. The big dog's mouth opened when he saw the duckling. Then he looked again and went away-without touching him.
I'm glad I'm ugly," thought the duckling. I'm so ugly that even the dog doesn't want to eat me."
He lay still. The noise of the shooting could be heard all day. Even at night the poor duckling was afraid to get up. He waited a long time before he looked through the long grass. Then he ran away as quickly as he could.

At last he came to a little hut. The door of the hut was open, so the duckling walked inside.
An old woman lived in the hut with her cat and her hen. The old woman called the cat" My little son"; the hen laid very good eggs, and the old woman loved her.
The next moring they found the duckling in the room. The cat and the hen began to make a noise.
"What is it?" the old woman asked, looking everywhere in the room. But her eyes were not good, so she thought that the duckling was a fat old duck who had lost her way.
"I shall now have duck's eggs. This is very good,"she said.
And so the old woman, the cat and the hen all waited for the duckling to lay eggs. They waited for a long time, but no eggs came.
The cat and the hen were angry with the duckling.
"Can't you lay eggs?" the hen asked.
"No."
"Then don't speak."
And the cat said,"Can you make a nice noise like I do?-Purr,purr."
"No".
"Then you mustn't speak when we're speaking."
So the duckling sat alone in the room and was very unhappy. He wanted to go into the river again, and he told the hen about this.
"Are you ill?" the hen asked. "You have nothing to do and so you think about these things. If you lay eggs, you won't think about them."
"But it's so nice to go into the river." the duckling said. "It's nice when the water goes over your head."
Now I know that you're ill." the hen said. "Ask the cat what she thinks. Ask her if she would like the water to go over her head. Ask the old woman-there is no one alive who knows more than she does. Do you think that she would like to fall in the river?"
"You don't know how nice it is." the duckling said.
"What! We don't know how nice it is! So you think you know more than the cat and the old woman. You should thank us for being so kind to you. Aren't you living in a nice room with nice people? Learn to lay eggs or to purr."
"I think I'll go into the fields and woods again,' the ducklign said.
"Go at once,l" answered the hen.

So the ducklign went. He went to the river and jumped into the water. But no one spoke to him because he was so ugly.
Soon the days became cold and it began to snow. The poor duckling didn't find it easy to stay alive.
One night, just as the sun was going down in the sky, the duckling saw some large and beautiful birds. He had never seen anything so beautiful before. Their bodies were white: they were swans. They went up and up in the sky. They were going away from the cold country and over the sea to hotter countries. The ugly duckling watched them for a long time.
Ah!He would always remember those beautiful birds. He didn't know what the birds were called; he didn't know where they were going; but he loved them more than anything. He didn't want to be as beautiful as they were: he would be happy if he could just live with the other ducks in the garden.
But the river was so cold, so cold! The duckling could never stay still in the water: it was so very cold. At last, he fell down in the snow.
In the morning a farmer came to the river. He saw the duckling near the side of the river. So he brought him home to his wife.
The duckling opened his eyes. The farmer's children wanted to play with him, but the duckling was afraid of them. He was so afraid that he jumped into some milk. The farmer's wife shouted, and the noise made the duckling even more afraid. He jumped on the food and ran everywhere.
The woman shouted again and hit him.The children ran to catch him and shouted, too. The door was open: he jumped out of the house and into the snow.
The duckling went from one place to another, but no one wanted to help him. There were times when he wanted to sit down in the snow and die. But he lived through the cold days and at last he saw the sun in the sky once more.

The duckling got up. He was bigger than before and he could fly high up in the sky. Up! Up! At last he came down out of the sky. He came down into a large garden, full of beautiful trees. There was a river near the trees.Oh! everything was so beautiful!
Three beautiful white swans came down out of the sky. They went into the river and sat on the water so beautifully. The ducklign remembered seeing these beautiful birds before.
"I'll go to them, those beautiful birds!" he said."They'll kill me because I'm so ugly. But I must go to them."
He ran into the water and went up to the beautiful birds. They saw him and came to him.
"Kill me," said the poor duckling, and he put his head down near the water, and he saw...! What did he see in the water?He saw his own body. It was not the body of a fat, ugly duckling. It was the body of a swan! He had come from a swan's egg.

The swans came to him and touched him. Some little children were running about in the garden. They threw bread into the water, and the youngest cried out ,"There's a new one!" The others cried out, too. "Yes, a new swan has come!" They looked at him happily. "The new one is so young and so beautiful. He is the most beautiful of them all."
The young swan was so happy! He remembered how no one liked him before. Now the children said that he was the most beauriful of all beauriful birds. He said,"I never thought that I could be so happy."