catch the Duckling; and they laughed and they
screamed!--well it was that the door stood open, and the poor creature
was able to slip out between the shrubs into the newly-fallen
snow--there it lay quite exhausted.

But it would be too melancholy if I were to tell all the misery and care
which the Duckling had to endure in the hard winter. It lay out on the
moor among the reeds, when the sun began to shine again and the larks to
sing. It was a beautiful spring.

Then all at once the Duckling could flap its wings. They beat the air
more strongly than before, and bore it strongly away; and before it well
knew how all this happened, it found itself in a great garden, where the
elder-trees smelt sweet, and bent their long green branches down to the
canal that wound through the region. Oh, here it was so beautiful, such
a gladness of spring! and from the thicket came three glorious white
swans; they rustled their wings, and swam lightly on the water. The
Duckling knew the splendid creatures, and felt oppressed by a peculiar
sadness.

"I will fly away to them, to the royal birds, and they will beat me,
because I, that am so ugly, dare to come near them. But it is all the
same. Better to be killed by _them_ than to be pursued by ducks, and
beaten by fowls, and pushed about by the girl who takes care of the
poultry yard, and to suffer hunger in winter!" And it flew out into the
water, and swam towards the beautiful swans; these looked at it, and
came sailing down upon it with outspread wings. "Kill me!" said the poor
creature, and bent its head down upon the water, expecting nothing but
death. But what was this that it saw in the clear water? It beheld its
own image; and, lo! it was no longer a clumsy dark-gray bird, ugly and
hateful to look at, but a--swan!

It matters nothing if one is born in a duck-yard if one has only lain in
a swan's egg.

It felt quite glad at all the need and misfortune it had suffered, now
it realised its happiness in all the splendour that surrounded it. And
the great swans swam round it, and stroked it with their beaks.

Into the garden came little children, who threw bread and corn into the
water; and the youngest cried, "There is a new one!" and the other
children shouted joyously, "Yes, a new one has arrived!" And they
clapped their hands and danced about, and ran to their father and
mother; and bread and cake were thrown into the water; and they all
said, "The new one is the most beautiful