The Ugly Duckling

A duck sat on her eggs, and one of them was larger than the others and took longer. An old duck said it was a turkey egg and advised leaving it. The mother sat anyway.

What came out was big and grey, and the first thing anybody said about him was that he was terribly ugly. He swam beautifully, which nobody counted.

The ducks bit him, the hens pecked him, the girl who fed the poultry pushed him aside, and his own brothers and sisters joined in. In the end his mother said she wished he were far away, so he went.

He hid from hunters in a marsh. He lodged in a leaning cottage with a cat who could give off sparks and a hen who laid excellent eggs, and both of them explained that as he could do neither he should hold his tongue.

One evening he saw great white birds fly south, and he did not know what they were called, and he cried out so strangely that he frightened himself.

The winter nearly killed him.

In spring he found his wings had grown strong, and he saw three of the white birds on a canal. He flew down expecting to be killed for daring to come near, because that was better than another winter.

Then he saw his own reflection, and it was white, and it had a long neck.

He put his head under his wing, extremely happy and not in the least proud.