worse. The poor duckling was chased by them all. Even his brothers and sisters behaved badly to him, and were always saying: "If the cat would only catch you, you ugly fright!" And the mother wished him far away, while the ducks snapped at him, and the fowls pecked at him, and the girl who fed the poultry kicked him with her foot.
So he ran away and flew over the hedge. The little birds among the bushes flew up in great fright. "That's because I am so ugly," thought the duckling, and shut his eyes; but he ran and ran till he came out on the great marsh where the wild ducks lived. Here he remained the whole night, he was so very tired and miserable.
In the morning the wild ducks flew up and then saw their new comrade. "Who are you?" they asked. The duckling turned round in all directions, and bowed to them the best he could.
"You are terribly ugly," said the wild ducks, "but that is all the same to us, so long as you do not marry into our family."
Poor thing, he was not likely to think of getting married! If he could only be allowed to lie among the rushes and drink a little of the marsh water!
There he remained for two whole days; then there came two wild geese, or, rather, wild ganders, for they were two male birds. It could not have been long since they came out of the egg, and that's why they were so frisky.
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"Just listen, comrade," said they. "You are so ugly that we are almost inclined to like you. Will you come along with us and be a bird of passage? Close by, in another marsh, there are some sweet, darling wild geese, all of them spinsters, who can say, 'Quack!' You may be able to make your fortune there, ugly as you are."
"Pop! pop!" was heard just above them at this moment, and both the wild ganders fell down dead among the rushes, and colored the water red. "Pop! pop!" was heard again, and whole flocks of wild geese flew up from the rushes and then there were more reports. A great shooting party had arrived on the spot, and the sportsmen were lying all over the moor; some were even sitting in the
