g wings, and flew away from
the cold countries (for the winter was setting in) to warmer lands
and unfrozen lakes. They mounted so high, so very high! The little
ugly duck felt indescribably--it turned round in the water like a
mill-wheel, stretched out its neck towards them, and uttered a cry
so loud and strange that it was afraid even of itself. Oh, the
beautiful birds! the happy birds! it could not forget them; and
when it could see them no longer, it dived down to the very bottom
of the water; and when it came up again it was quite beside itself.

"And now it became so cold! But it would be too sad to relate all
the suffering and misery which the duckling had to endure through
the hard winter. It lay on the moor in the rushes. But when the sun
began to shine again more warmly, when the larks sang, and the
lovely spring was come, then, all at once it spread out its wings,
and rose in the air. They made a rushing noise louder than
formerly, and bore it onwards more vigorously; and before it was
well aware of it, it found itself in a garden, where the
apple-trees were in blossom, and where the syringas sent forth
their fragrance, and their long green branches hung down in the
clear stream. Just then three beautiful white swans came out of the
thicket. They rustled their feathers, and swam on the water so
lightly--oh! so very lightly! The duckling knew the superb
creatures, and was seized with a strange feeling of sadness.

"'To them will I fly!' said it, 'to the royal birds. Though they
kill me, I must fly to them!' And it flew into the water, and swam
to the magnificent birds, that looked at, and with rustling plumes,
sailed towards it.

"'Kill me!' said the poor creature, and bowed down its head to the
water, and awaited death. But what did it see in the water? It saw
beneath it its own likeness; but no longer that of an awkward
grayish bird, ugly and displeasing--it was the figure of a swan.

"It is of no consequence being born in a farm-yard, if only it is
in a swan's egg.

"The large swans swam beside it, and stroked it with their bills.
There were little children running about in the garden; they threw
bread into the water, and the youngest cried out, 'There is a new
one!' And the other children shouted too; 'Yes, a new one is