The Ugly Duckling
A misfit duckling grew up with rejection as a way of life, until he thought all hope was gone.
1837
A misfit duckling grew up with rejection as a way of life, until he thought all hope was gone.
1837
The Ugly Duckling is one of the best-loved of all the fairy tales of Danish storyteller Hans Christian Andersen, a contemporary and friend of Charles Dickens. Below you will find a very brief précis of the story, which reminds us that it’s not where you came from that matters, it’s where you belong.
A MOTHER duck hatched a fine family of ducklings. Except for one. He was late in coming, and uncommonly large. He swam beautifully, but - such an ugly duckling! Even his quack sounded strange. All the ducks in the yard pecked him and shunned him. ‘How ugly he is!’ some cried. ‘Like a turkey!’, sniffed others.
He fled, but everywhere he went he was turned out, until at last he passed the icy winter months all alone.
Then one day in early Spring, as the waters thawed, he saw three magnificent white swans swimming eagerly towards him across a garden lake. ‘It will be something’ the little duckling sighed ‘to be pecked to bits by such royal birds!’ He dropped his glance humbly; but to his amazement he saw, looking up from the water below, a fourth swan, white and graceful.
For it does not matter in the least having been born in a duckyard, if only you come out of a swan’s egg.
The swans welcomed him, and the children of the house came out and fed him with crusts and cakes. Never had he been so happy, and he rejoiced over everything he had endured, because he could appreciate all the better the happiness that now awaited him.
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
What was strange about the mother duck’s youngest duckling?