Once upon a time down on an old farm, lived a duck family, and Mother Duck had been sitting on a clutch of new eggs. One nice morning, the eggs hatched and out popped six chirpy ducklings. But one egg was bigger than the rest, and it didn't hatch. Mother Duck couldn't recall laying that seventh egg. How did it get there? TOCK! TOCK! The little prisoner was pecking inside his shell.
"Did I count the eggs wrongly?" Mother Duck
wondered. But before she had time to think about it, the last egg finally
hatched. A strange looking duckling with gray feathers that should have been
yellow gazed at a worried mother. The ducklings grew quickly, but Mother Duck
had a secret worry.
"I can't understand how this ugly duckling can be
one of mine!" she said to herself, shaking her head as she looked at her
last born. Well, the gray duckling certainly wasn't pretty, and since he ate
far more than his brothers, he was outgrowing them. As the days went by, the
poor ugly duckling became more and more unhappy. His brothers didn't want to
play with him, he was so
clumsy, and all the farmyard folks simply laughed at him. He
felt sad and lonely, while Mother Duck did her best to console him.
"Poor little ugly duckling!" she would say.
"Why are you so different from the others?" And the ugly duckling
felt worse than ever. He secretly wept at night. He felt nobody wanted
him.
"Nobody loves me, they all tease me! Why am I
different from my brothers?"
Then one day, at sunrise, he ran away from the farmyard.
He stopped at a pond and began to question all the other birds. "Do you
know of any ducklings with gray feathers like mine?" But everyone shook
their heads in scorn.
"We don't know anyone as ugly as you." The ugly
duckling did not lose heart, however, and kept on making inquiries. He went to
another pond, where a pair of large geese gave him the same answer to his question.
What's more, they warned him: "Don't stay here! Go away! It's dangerous.
There are men with guns around here!" The duckling was sorry he had ever
left the farmyard.
Then one day, his travels took him near an old
countrywoman's cottage. Thinking he was a stray goose, she caught him.
"I'll put this in a hutch. I hope it's a female and
lays plenty of eggs!" said the old woman, whose eyesight was poor. But the
ugly duckling laid not a single egg. The hen kept frightening him.
"Just wait! If you don't lay eggs, the old woman
will wring your neck and pop you into the pot!" And the cat chipped in:
"Hee! Hee! I hope the woman cooks you, then I can gnaw at your
bones!" The poor ugly duckling was so scared that he lost his appetite,
though the old woman kept stuffing him with food and grumbling: "If you
won't lay eggs, at least hurry up and get plump!"
"Oh, dear me!" moaned the now terrified
duckling. "I'll die of fright first! And I did so hope someone would love
me!"
Then one night, finding the hutch door ajar, he escaped.
Once again he was all alone. He fled as far away as he could, and at dawn, he
found himself in a thick bed of reeds. "If nobody wants me, I'll hid here
forever." There was plenty a food, and the duckling began to feel a little
happier, though he was lonely. One day at sunrise, he saw a flight of beautiful
birds wing overhead. White, with long slender necks, yellow beaks and large
wings, they were migrating south.
"If only I could look like them, just for a
day!" said the duckling, admiringly. Winter came and the water in the reed
bed froze. The poor duckling left home to seek food in the snow. He dropped
exhausted to the ground, but a farmer found him and put him in his big jacket
pocket.
"I'll take him home to my children. They'll look
after him. Poor thing, he's frozen!" The duckling was showered with kindly
care at the farmer's house. In this way, the ugly duckling was able to survive
the bitterly cold winter.
However, by springtime, he had grown so big that the
farmer decided: "I'll set him free by the pond!" That was when the
duckling saw himself mirrored in the water.
"Goodness! How I've changed! I hardly recognize
myself!" The flight of swans winged north again and glided on to the pond.
When the duckling saw them, he realized he was one of their kind, and soon made
friends.
"We're swans like you!" they said, warmly.
"Where have you been hiding?"
"It's a long story," replied the young swan,
still astounded. Now, he swam majestically with his fellow swans. One day, he
heard children on the river bank exclaim: "Look at that young swan! He's
the finest of them all!"
And he almost burst with happiness.
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