er 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