1Once upon a time, there was an old farm.
2And on that farm, lived a family of ducks.
3Mother duck had been sitting on a clutch of new eggs for weeks.
4Until finally, one morning...
5The eggs hatched open.
6And out popped 6 chirpy ducklings, all crying "peep, peep"
7But one egg was bigger than the rest.
8And it didn't hatch like all the others.
9"Oh dear!" mother duck said to herself.
10"I'm so tired of sitting on eggs"
11"I wonder how much longer this one is going to take to hatch"
12But being a good mother, she sat on the nest again and continued to wait.
13And wait...
14Until finally,
15The big egg cracked and broke open.
16Slowly, out came two big feet.
17And a head.
18But it wasn't a soft little yellow head like the other ducklings.
19This one was big and grey with a long scrawny neck and a fuzzy body.
20"My my..." said mother duck when she saw him.
21"He certainly doesn't look like any of my other children."
22"I wonder how he got to look so... different."
23"He's ugly", cracked the other ducklings.
24"He doesn't look a bit like us, and we don't want to play with him."
25"Now, now...", said mother duck.
26"He's your brother and you will be nice to him."
27But the other ducklings did not want to have anything to do with him.
28And ran away to play by themselves.
29Well, the gray duckling certainly wasn't pretty.
30And since he ate far more than his brothers.
31He was getting bigger than them very quickly.
32As the day went by.
33The poor ugly duckling became more and more unhappy.
34His brothers didn't want to play with him.
35He was so clumsy.
36And all the farmyard animals simply laughed at him whenever he went.
37He felt very sad and lonely.
38Mother duck did her best to comfort him, but it was no use.
39"Poor little ugly duckling." she would say.
40"Why are you so different from all the others."
41But this just made the ugly duckling feel worse than ever.
42Every night, he cried himself to sleep.
43He felt that nobody wanted him.
44"Nobody loves me."
45"They all tease me."
46"Why am I different from my brothers."
47One day, the weather was lovely.
48And the sun shone brightly in the sky.
49So mother duck took her young family down to the water for a swimming lesson.
50She jumped in with a splash.
51"Whack, whack." she cried.
52As one after the other, the little ducklings jumped in.
53Under the water, they all disappeared.
54But quickly, each one came up and swam about quite prettily.
55The ugly duckling had also followed them down to the pond.
56"I'll bet that ugly gray brother of ours can't swim."
57Shouted one of the little yellow ducklings.
58Seeing all the other ducklings swimming about,
59He jumped into the water and had a go himself.
60Under the water he went with a big splash.
61Until suddenly, he reappeared and started to swim.
62In fact, much better than most of his brothers.
63"Oh my word!" said mother duck.
64"He certainly can swim."
65"He must be my own child after all."
66But, as the day went by,
67the poor ugly duckling became more and more unhappy.
68His brothers still didn't want to play with him because he was so big and different.
69He felt sad and lonely.
70And while mother duck did her best to comfort him.
71The ugly duckling felt worse than ever.
72"Nobody loves me." he said.
73"They all tease me."
74Why am I different from my brothers.
75One day, the ugly duckling decided that he could take no more teasing.
76And at sunrise, he ran away from the farmyard.
77He stopped at a pond.
78And began to question all the other birds he could find.
79"Do you know of any ducklings with gray feathers like mine?" he asked.
80But everyone shook their heads.
81"We don't know anyone as ugly as you." the other birds said.
82But the ugly duckling did not lose heart
83And kept on asking all the other birds.
84He went to another pond.
85Where a pair of large geese gave him the same answer to his question.
86What's more, they warned him: "Don't stay here!"
87"Go away quick, it's dangerous"
88"There are men with guns."
89Just then, he heard the "bang bang" of a gun and ran for his life.
90The duckling was sorry he had ever left the farmyard.
91After walking some more, it started to rain.
92And at last, he came to a miserable little shack
93that only seemed to remain standing because it didn't know which way to tumble down.
94The door hung open crookedly.
95And the duckling slipped inside to get out of the rain.
96Inside, he found a corner to rest in and fell asleep for the night.
97In the morning, he woke to find an old woman lived there with her cat
98and her hen.
99They saw the duckling and decided to allow him to stay with them.
100As long as he lay eggs to sell.
101However, the duckling could not do this.
102And the cat and the hen made fun of him whenever the old woman was not looking.
103The hen said to the ugly duckling.
104"If you don't lay eggs, the old woman will wring your neck and pop you into the pot."
105And the cat chipped in.
106"Hehe, I hope the old woman cooks you."
107"Then I can eat your bones."
108The poor ugly duckling was so scared that he lost his appetite.
109Though the old woman kept stuffing him with food and grumbling:
110"If you won't lay eggs to sell,"
111"at least hurry up and get fat so I can make you into a nice meal."
112So one night, he decided it was time to leave.
113And he quietly escaped from the miserable little shack.
114Once again, he was all alone.
115He fled as far away as he could.
116And at daybreak, he found himself in a thick bed of reeds by the water.
117"If nobody wants me,"
118"I'll hide here forever."
119"There was plenty of food, and the duckling began to feel a little happier."
120Although, he was still very lonely.
121Then one day, at sunrise.
122He saw some beautiful birds fly overhead.
123They were white, with long slender necks,
124yellow beaks and large wings.
125"Oh, if only I could look like them!"
126"Just for a day." said the duckling.
127Winter came and the water in the reed bed froze over.
128The poor duckling left home to seek food in the snow.
129But it was very tiring.
130And he could not find anything to eat.
131Finally, he was so exhausted, he dropped to the ground.
132But luckily, a farmer found him and put him in his big jacket pocket.
133"I'll take him home to my children."
134"They'll look after him."
135"Poor thing! He's frozen."
136The duckling was showered with kindly care at the farmer's house.
137And because of this kindness,
138The ugly duckling was able to live through the very cold winter.
139By spring time, he had grown so big
140that the farmer decided to set him free by the pond.
141Outside, the weather was warm and sunny,
142and birds sang as flowers bloomed.
143Suddenly, the duckling found that he could flap his wings and fly.
144He took to the air,
145and looked for somewhere to call home.
146In no time at all, he found himself in a beautiful garden.
147When from nowhere, three glorious white birds appeared.
148They were the same white birds he had seen fly off to warmer homes just before the winter.
149They were called swans.
150And as they appeared, they ruffled their feathers as they swam lightly across the water.
151The ugly duckling was amazed at the beautiful birds and thought to himself:
152"If I dare go near them,"
153"they will laugh at me because I'm so ugly."
154"But I don't care."
155"Better to be laughed at by these beautiful creatures than to be teased by ducks and hens,"
156"or kicked by children or starve in the winter."
157So he dived into the water and swam out to the swans.
158"Laugh at me" cried the poor creature,
159bending his head down to the water.
160But what was this he saw reflected in the clear water.
161It was his own image.
162For the first time, he saw himself as he really was.
163And, to his utter amazement.
164He saw that he was not an ugly duckling anymore.
165Or a duckling at all!
166But a swan, a beautiful white swan.
167The other swans recognized him as one of their own,
168and didn't chase him away.
169Instead, they caressed him gently with their beaks.
170And for the first time in his life, he knew what it was like to love and be loved.