The Ugly Duckling 丑小鸭

Part6 The Ugly Duckling One evening, the sun was just setting in with true splendor when a flock of beautiful large birds appeared out of the bushes.

The duckling had never seen anything so beautiful. They were dazzlingly white with long waving necks.

They were swans and uttering a peculiar cry. They spread out their magnificent broad wings and flew away from the cold regions toward warmer lands and open seas.

They mounted so high, so very high, and the ugly little duckling became strangely uneasy.

He circled around and around in the water like a wheel, craning his neck out into the air after them.

Then he uttered the shriek so piercing and so strange that he was quite frightened by himself. Oh, he could not forget those beautiful birds, those happy birds.

And as soon as they were out of sight, he ducked right down to the bottom and when he came up again, he was quite beside himself.

He did not know what the birds were or where'd they flew. But all the same, he was more drawn towards them than he had ever been by any creatures before.

He did not envy them in the least. How could it occur to him even to wish to be such a remarkable beauty?

How thankful he would be if only the ducks would have tolerated him among them, poor ugly creature. Early in the morning, a peasant came along and saw him.