Favorite Fairy Tales | Page 8

in a warm room, and have you not the
advantage of society from which you can learn something? But you are
a simpleton, and it is wearisome to have anything to do with you.
Believe me, I wish you well. I tell you unpleasant truths, but it is thus
that real friendship is shown. Come, for once give yourself the trouble
to learn to purr, or to lay eggs."
"I think I will go out into the wide world again," said the Duckling.
"Well, go," answered the Hen.
So the Duckling went. He swam on the surface of the water, he plunged
beneath, but all animals passed him by, on account of his ugliness. And
the autumn came, the leaves turned yellow and brown, the wind caught
them and danced them about, the air was very cold, the clouds were
heavy with hail or snow, and the Raven sat on the hedge and croaked.

The poor Duckling was certainly not very comfortable.
One evening, just as the sun was setting with unusual brilliancy, a flock
of large, beautiful birds rose from out of the brushwood. The Duckling
had never seen anything so beautiful before; their plumage was of a
dazzling white, and they had long, slender necks. They were Swans.
They uttered a singular cry, spread out their long splendid wings, and
flew away from these cold regions to warmer countries, across the open
sea. They flew so high, so very high! And the little Ugly Duckling's
feelings were so strange. He turned round and round in the water like a
mill-wheel, strained his neck to look after them, and sent forth such a
loud and strange cry that it almost frightened himself. Ah! he could not
forget them, those noble birds, those happy birds! When he could see
them no longer he plunged to the bottom of the water, and when he
rose again was almost beside himself. The Duckling knew not what the
birds were called, knew not whither they were flying; yet he loved them
as he had never before loved anything. He envied them not; it would
never have occurred to him to wish such beauty for himself. He would
have been quite contented if the Ducks in the duck-yard had but
endured his company--the poor, ugly creature.
[Illustration]
And the winter was so cold, so cold, the Duckling was obliged to swim
round and round in the water to keep it from freezing. But every night
the opening in which he swam became smaller and smaller. It froze so
that the crust of ice crackled and the Duckling was obliged to make
good use of his legs to prevent the water from freezing entirely. At last,
wearied out, he lay stiff and cold in the ice.
Early in the morning there passed by a peasant who saw him, broke the
ice in pieces with his wooden shoe, and brought him home to his wife.
The poor Duckling soon revived. The children would have played with
him, but he thought they wished to tease him, and in his terror jumped
into the milk-pail, so that the milk was spilled about the room. The
good woman screamed and clapped her hands. He flew from there into
the pan where the butter was kept, and thence into the meal-barrel, and

out again, and then how strange he looked!
The woman screamed, and struck at him with the tongs, the children
ran races with each other trying to catch him, and laughed and
screamed likewise. It was well for him that the door stood open. He
jumped out among the bushes into the new-fallen snow, and there he
lay as in a dream.
But it would be too sad to tell all the trouble and misery that he had to
suffer from the frost, and snow and storms of the winter. He was lying
on a moor among the reeds, when the sun began to shine warmly again;
the larks sang, and beautiful spring had returned.
Once more he shook his wings. They were stronger than formerly and
bore him forward quickly, and before he was well aware of it he was in
a large garden where the apple-trees stood in full bloom, where the
syringas sent forth their fragrance and hung their long green branches
down into the winding canal. Oh! everything was so lovely, so full of
the freshness of spring! And out of the thicket came three beautiful
white Swans. They displayed their feathers so proudly and swam so
lightly, so lightly! The Duckling knew the glorious creatures, and was
seized with a strange sadness.
"I will fly to them, those kingly birds!" said he. "They will kill me,
because I, ugly as I am, have dared to approach them. But it matters not.
Better to be killed