The Ugly Duckling
It was a lovely summer day.
In the beautiful scenery of the countryside,
a duck was sitting on her nest.
She was waiting for her young brood to hatch.
The shell cracked one after the other, and came several lovely ducks.
But the largest egg lay there still.
The mother duck sat on the egg for some days and at last the large egg broke.
But unlike the other ducklings, this one was large and ugly.
Because of his strange look, the other ducks didn’t like him.
They bit him and made fun of him.
He was driven about by everyone.
At last, he ran away. On his way, he was caught in a storm.
He saw a little cottage and went in for shelter.
There lived an old woman, a cat and a hen in the cottage.
The old woman found him the next morning and allowed him to stay.
But again, he was teased by the cat and the hen.
He wanted to swim in the water and to be free.
So he left the cottage. Winter came, the lake froze.
The ugly duckling was frozen in the ice.
A farmer found him and brought him home.
He came to life again, but he was afraid of human beings.
The children of the famer chased him about.
So he ran out the third time. He struggled through the winter in the wild.
When spring came, he found himself changed.
He was no longer ugly gray bird, but a graceful swan, and, he could fly.
He flew to a lake, where other swans welcomed him.
Children saw him; they threw bread and cake into the water.
“Look！The new one is the most beautiful of all,” they said.
While he was an ugly duckling, he had never dreamed of such happiness | 
