The Ugly Duckling

I read ‘ The Ugly Duckling.’  The duckling  isn’t cute and yellow like the other baby ducks. Instead, he is tall, gray and awkward. The farmyard ducks don’t like him – and he is so upset that he sets out on a journey across the moors all on his own, until, at the wonderful ending he finds his true self.  “Nobody loves me, they all tease me! Why am I different from my brothers?”Deep in the forest, he saw a cottage in which there lived an old woman, her hen, and her cat. The duckling stayed with them for some time but he was unhappy there and soon left. When winter set in the poor duckling almost froze to death. A peasant took him home to his wife and children. The poor duckling was terrified of the children and escaped. The ugly duckling spent the winter in a marshy pond.Finally, spring arrived. One day, the duckling saw a beautiful swan swimming in the pond.When he saw his own reflection in the water he was astonished. He was not an ugly duckling anymore, but a handsome young swan! Now, he knew why he had looked so different from his brothers. “They were ducklings but I was a baby swan!” he said to himself.