The Ugly Little Duck

The Ugly Little Duck

The country was beautiful. There were woods along the sides of the fields. In the woods there was an old hut and many small rivers. The grass near the rivers was very long. No one ever went there.

One day a duck was sitting on her eggs in these woods. She sat there for a long time and she began to grow unhappy. The other ducks liked to stay in the rivers: they did not want to sit in the long grass near her.

At last the eggs opened and little ducks came out of them.

"Tchick, tchick!" the little ducks said as they put their heads outside the eggs.

"Quack, quack," said the old duck.

Then the little ducks stood up and looked at the grass.

"How big everything is!" they said.

The old duck got up, "I have not got you all." She said, "The largest egg is still here. It is not open. How long will this last? I don't want to sit here all day." Then she sat down again.

Another duck came to see her. "How are you?" she asked.

"This one egg makes me stay here so long!" the old duck said. "It will not open! But look at the others! They are the prettiest little ducks that I have ever seen."

"Let me see the egg which will not open," the other duck said. "Ah, yes! It is big egg. Do not sit on it any longer. Show the other little ones how to go into the river."

"I will sit on it a little longer," the duck said.

The big egg opened at last. "Tchick, tchick," said the little one, and it fell out. But oh! How big and ugly it was! The duck looked at it. "That is a very big duck," she said. "None of the others are at all like it. But it must go into the water, too. I'll put it in now."

The next day the old duck took all the little ducks down to the river. She went into the water. "Quack, quack," she dried, and one little duck after another jumped in. The water went over their heads, but they all came up again. All were there, even the ugly one.

"See how it goes through the water. It is a good little duck: it is my own child," the old duck said. "It is very pretty when you look at it now. Quack, Quack, come with me! I shall show you many things and I shall take you to see all the other ducks. But stay near me, or someone may walk on you. Do not go too near the cat."

So they went to see the other ducks in the garden. There was much noise; the two ducks were having a quarrel about some food.

"Stay near me and speak to the old duck which you see over there. She is the greatest of the ducks here." The duck said to her children.

The little ducks did as they were told. But the other ducks who were in the garden looked at them and said, "Now there are some more ducks: there are too many of us. And look how ugly that one is. We shall send him away."

Then one of the ducks ran to him and bit him.

"Do not touch him," the old duck said. "He is doing nothing to hurt you."

"He is big and ugly, so we will bite him."

"He is not beautiful, but he is a very good child," the old duck told the other ducks. "He is very good in the water, I think he will grow like the others in time. He may even look smaller. He stayed so long in his egg: that is why he is not the same."

But the poor little duck who was the last out of its egg was bitten by the ducks and hens. "It is so big," they all said. The poor little thing did not 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 duck!" And even the old duck said, "I wish you were far away!"

The ugly little duck ran out of the garden. The little birds in the trees were very afraid. "That is because I am so ugly," the little duck 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 all the night there.

In the morning the wild ducks got up and saw the little duck. "Who are you?" they asked. The ugly little duck was very nice to them.

"You are very ugly," the wild ducks said. "But we will still like you if you do not marry any of our children." Poor thing! He never thought of marrying. All he wanted was to sit in the long grass and drink some water.

He stayed there for two days. On the next day 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. Many wild geese went up in the sky from the long grass. Bang!

There were many men with guns. They were shooting the wild geese. They were on all sides of the little duck; some were even sitting in the trees. Their dogs ran through the long grass. How afraid the little duck was! He wanted to hide his head so that he could not see. Just then a big dog stood near him. The big dog's mouth opened when he saw the little duck. Then he looked again and went away-without touching the little duck.

"I am glad that I am ugly." said the duck. "I am so ugly that even the dog will not eat me."

And now he lay still: the noise of the shooting could be heard all day. Even at night the poor little duck 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.



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