Once upon a time, there was a duck that became a mother by laying six perfect eggs. She was very protective of her eggs and only left them alone once every morning to get breakfast. However, one day she returned to the coop and found not six, but seven eggs in her nest.
“Oh, I must have miscounted,” the mother duck said and never thought about it again.
A month later, the eggs hatched, and six beautiful ducklings were born. However, the creature that hatched from the seventh egg could only be described as an ugly duckling, and that was putting it nicely.
While the six ducklings had bright yellow, fluffy feathers, the seventh’s feathers were gray and matted. The six ducklings had small orange beaks, but the seventh’s was large and black. At feeding time, the six ducklings quacked cutely up at their mother, but the seventh squawked and hurt his siblings’ ears.
From the minute they were born, the ducklings recognized that their brother was very different from them. And since difference has always frightened small-minded creatures, the Ugly Duckling was teased and tormented mercilessly by his brothers and sisters.
When they went for walks with their mother around the farm, they always made the Ugly Duckling walk a foot behind them. When they went for a swim, they’d trick him into a game of “who can hold their breath underwater the longest” and then abandon him when he dived under the surface. When they were caught in sudden storms, the ducklings would shut the door of their coop before the Ugly Duckling could get inside and make him stand in the rain.
The bullying didn’t just come from his siblings, though. None of the animals on the farm could resist taking a jab at the baby bird.
“Maybe his mother didn’t sit on his egg long enough,” said a cow.
“Or maybe she sat on it too long,” a pig said with laughter.
Finally, the Ugly Duckling couldn’t bear the mistreatment any longer, and he left the farm. He found a pond a little ways down the road and met a family of geese living there.
“Would you mind having another bird around?” the Ugly Duckling asked.
“As long as you can fend for yourself,” said the gander in charge. “No one is going to chew your food for you here.”
The Ugly Duckling had gotten enough practice fending for himself on the farm, so he didn’t think it would be a problem. The geese weren’t affectionate toward him, but they never harassed him either, so the Ugly Duckling was quite content living with them.
However, living outside the safety of the farm had dangers that the Ugly Duckling had never expected.
Hunters came to the lake and frightened the geese into the air. The geese tried to fly away, but they were shot down. Since his wings hadn’t grown in yet, the Ugly Duckling stayed on the ground and hid in the grass until the hunters left.
The Ugly Duckling was forced to venture out into the world and find a new home. He passed a pleasant little cottage in the woods that belonged to an old woman. She was sitting in a rocking chair on her porch when he waddled by, and she invited him in.
“Poor little birdie, you must be lost,” she said. “Please come inside and let me take care of you.”
The old woman fed him lots of seeds and turned a wooden box into a nice bed for him. She was a kind person, but the Ugly Duckling wasn’t her only pet. The old woman also had a fluffy house cat with a big appetite.
Every day, the cat would stare at the Ugly Duckling and lick the corners of its mouth. Its claws would go in and out as it watched him waddle around the house. It made the Ugly Duckling nervous, and he worried the cat would attack him if he stayed too long. Finally, he couldn’t take the anxiety anymore and left the cottage to find a new place to live.
The Ugly Duckling came across a flock of swans resting in a stream. He thought they were the most majestic creatures he had ever seen and was envious of their white feathers and long, slender necks. He quickly waddled toward the swans to ask if he could live with them, but they stretched their long wings and flew away before he got a chance.
The swans flew south because, like all the birds except the Ugly Duckling, they knew winter was around the corner. Soon the land was covered in snow and blasted by freezing winds. All the ponds and the lakes froze over, and the Ugly Duckling had nowhere to go.
A farmer found him shivering in the cold and took pity on the poor bird. He wrapped him up in a cloth and took him home.
“Poor little fellow, let’s take you someplace warm,” he said.
The farmer’s house was lovely and a warm escape from the cold. He and his wife were kind to the Ugly Duckling, and they had no other pets he needed to worry about. However, they had two very rambunctious children, who became his biggest concern.
The children treated the Ugly Duckling like a toy. They threw him around, pulled his feathers, and dressed him up in clothes meant for a doll. The abuse became so bad that the Ugly Duckling thought he was better off living in the cold, so he left the farmer’s house.
The Ugly Duckling traveled to a frozen lake and spent the rest of the winter alone in a small cave beside it. It was a disheartening time for him. After all his travels, he still didn’t have a home or a family. He had turned into “a lone duck,” and in the bird world, it didn’t get any worse.
Eventually, spring came and melted the ice covering the lake. The Ugly Duckling had grown so much inside the cave that he could barely crawl out of it. He floated around the lake and stretched his wings, when suddenly he heard a voice call to him.
“Oh, hello there!” it said. “You must be looking for us!”
The Ugly Duckling turned toward the voice and saw that the flock of swans had returned for spring.
“Come join us over here,” a swan said.
“You want me to join you?” the Ugly Duckling asked.
“Of course we do,” the swan said. “After all, you’re one of us.”
The Ugly Duckling looked into the water and was shocked to see the reflection staring back at him. He had feathers as white as snow and a long, curvy neck—he had grown into a beautiful swan!