The Ugly Duckling

There was once an old manor house in the countryside, with walls and deep channels surrounding it. Between the walls and the water grew great burdock leaves and one of these was a duck waiting for her young brood to hatch. At last the eggs hatched one by one and the ducklings cried “pip, pip” as they put their heads out.

“How large the world is,” they said to each other.

“It is much larger than you think,” said another. Then she looked in the nest and saw that the largest egg still hadn’t hatched and no duckling had come out of it.

“Well, how are you?”» asked an old duck who came to visit.

“One egg has not hatched yet,” said another.

“Can I see it?” asked the old duck. “I was once tricked into hatching some turkeys’ eggs. I had a great deal of trouble with the young ones, they were afraid of water. Yes, that is a turkey’s egg. Leave it where it is and teach the others to swim.”

The duck sat a little longer on the large egg and at last the egg broke and out came a duckling that was big and ugly. “Could it be a turkey?” another asked.

Then the duck took all the ducklings into the canal and jumped in with a splash. “Quack, quack,” she said, and the kids jumped in after her, even the ugly, gray duckling.

“No, it’s not a turkey,” said another, “he is a good swimmer. He is quite pretty when you look really closely at him. All of you come with me.” And when they reached the farmyard, there was a great disturbance because the ducks were fighting over an eel’s head. In the end, the cat got it.