"I think I'll go out into the wide world," said the duckling.
"Yes, do by all means," said the hen.
And off went the duckling; he swam about on the water and he dived, but he was shunned by all other creatures on account of his ugliness.
Autumn was now setting in; the leaves of the forest were turning yellow and brown, and the wind caught them up and set them dancing and whirling about.
The air was turning cold and the clouds hung heavily laden with hail and snow. On the fence sat the raven and cawed, "Caw! caw!" from sheer cold. It made one shiver at the mere thought of it; the poor duckling was indeed in bad straits.
One evening, as the sun was setting in all its beauty, a whole Hock of large beautiful birds came out of the bushes; the duckling had never seen such lovely birds before. They were dazzlingly white, with long, curved necks; they were swans. They uttered quite a strange sound, and spreading out their splendid broad wings, they flew away from those cold regions to warmer climes, to the open lakes; they mounted higher and higher, and a feeling of sadness came over the ugly little duckling; he turned round and round in the water like a wheel, stretched his neck high up in the air after them, and uttered a cry so loud and strange that he became frightened at it himself. Oh! could he ever forget these beautiful, happy birds? As soon as they were out of sight he dived straight down to the bottom, and when he came up again he was quite beside himself. He did not know what the birds were called, or whither they were dying, but still he loved them as he had never loved anything before; he was not at all envious of them; how could he think of wishing for such beauty for himself? He would have been quite happy if only the ducks would have allowed him to remain with them; poor, ugly little thing!
And the winter was growing cold — oh, so cold! The duckling had to swim about in the water to prevent it from being frozen over; but every night the opening in which he was swimming grew smaller and smaller. It was freezing so hard that the ice creaked and cracked; the duckling had to keep his legs constantly moving so that the hole should not close up. At last he became exhausted; he lay quite still, and soon became frozen in the ice.
Early in the morning a peasant came by and saw him; he went out on the ice and broke it in pieces with his wooden shoe, and carried the duckling home to his wife. There he came to himself again.
The children wanted to play with him, but the duckling thought they would hurt him, and rushed in a great fright straight into the milk-bowl, so that the milk splashed all over the room. The woman screamed and held up her hands when the duckling flew into the trough where the butter was kept, and then into the flour-barrel and out of it again. What a sight he was! The woman screamed and tried to hit him with
