ly." After he
had been on the moor two days, he made friends with some wild geese, and
had nearly consented to fly over the sea with them, when "pop, pop,"
went a gun, and the poor gosling fell dead in the water. The poor
duckling was so frightened that he hid himself amongst the rushes. When
all was quiet again, he came out and ran over the moor till he reached a
tumble-down cottage, the door of which was ajar. He crept in, and stayed
there all night. A woman, a cat, and a hen lived in this cottage. The
hen had such short legs that her mistress called her "Chickie short
legs." The old woman let the duckling live in her house, hoping that
by-and-bye it might lay eggs. Now the cat was the master of the house,
and the hen was the mistress, and they always said, "We and the world,"
because they thought themselves half the world, at least. One day the
duckling said sadly, "It is very dull here, how much I should like to
swim in the water and to dive." "What a foolish idea," said the hen.
"You have nothing else to do, therefore you have strange fancies. If you
could purr or lay eggs they would pass away; ask the cat, he is the
cleverest animal I know, if _he_ would like to dive in the water; ask
our old mistress, there is no one in the world more clever than she
is; do you think she would like to let the water close over her head?"
"You don't understand me," said the duckling. "I think I must go into
the world again." "Very well, go," said the hen; and the duckling went.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

Very near the cottage he found some water, where he could swim and dive;
but all creatures avoided him because he was so ugly, therefore he was
always alone. One evening there came a beautiful flock of birds out of
the bushes. They curved their graceful necks, while their soft plumage
shone with dazzling whiteness. The duckling felt quite a strange
sensation as he watched them fly up in the air. He stretched out his
neck towards them, and uttered a cry so strange that it frightened
himself. How he loved the white birds! how he longed to be with them.

By-and-bye winter came, and froze the water quite hard. The ice crackled
round the duckling and at last shut him in, so that he could not get
out. Early in the morning a peasant who was passing saw what had
happened, broke the ice with his axe, took up the duckling, and carried
it home to his wife.

[Illustration]

The warmth revived the poor thing and it began to fly abo