orange fairy book

Chapter 4 The Ugly Duckling (2)

Later, the ugly duckling couldn't bear it anymore, because one day he felt that even the mother duck despised him, so that night, while all the chickens and ducks were sleeping, he sneaked out of the breeding ground, and Under the cover of burdock grass, walk upstream along the bank of the canal.At last he came to an open swamp, all wet and soft, with weeds and reeds, and there he lay down, but he was too tired and frightened to sleep.As soon as the sun came out, the reeds began to rustle, and a group of wild ducks passed by. The ugly duckling realized that he had stumbled into the wild duck's territory last night.But since he couldn't escape, he stood up and bowed politely to them.

The wild ducks looked at him carefully and said, "You are ugly, but it has nothing to do with us, unless you want to marry our daughter, then we will never allow it." The ugly duckling replied, "I don't think about marriage at all, and I don't want What, I just walked a long way to come here and want to be alone."

So he lay quietly among the reeds alone for two days, looking for something to eat nearby and drinking water from the swamp, so that he felt that his physical strength was slowly recovering. He hoped to stay here forever, because here both Comfortable and at home, and away from everyone, no one bullied him, and no one called him ugly.

Just as he was thinking, two little geese came to the reeds looking for dinner through the mud and saw him.

"We're tired of this swamp," they said, "and we're going to look somewhere else tomorrow, somewhere with a bigger lake and better food. Would you like to come with us?"

"Is there a better place than here?" Ugly Duckling asked dubiously.As soon as he finished speaking, "Crack! Crack!" Two shots were fired, and the two new friends immediately fell beside him, dead.

As soon as the wild ducks heard the gunshot, they rushed to the sky, and the gunfire lasted for several minutes.

It's lucky that the ugly duckling can't fly, so it escaped this disaster.There was a depression nearby, where tall ferns grew. The ugly duckling walked over with difficulty, step by step, muddy, trying to hide in the fern bushes, but before he got there, he ran into a A huge four-legged animal, which he later realized was a dog, was staring at him with its long red tongue sticking out.The ugly duckling was so frightened that he broke into a cold sweat and wanted to hide his head under his little wings.But the dog just sniffed him and walked away, so that he could finally survive with difficulty.

"I'm too ugly to eat a dog," he thought, "but that's good, it's a blessing for me." He huddled in the soft grass until the sound of the gunfire died away in the distance.

After all had been quiet for a long time, when it was already dark and only the stars were watching him, he crept out cautiously to look around.

He thought: "I will never go near the swamp again." Looking in the direction he came, he saw that the swamp was far away from him, so he mustered up his courage and continued to move forward.He came to a small cottage. The house looked dilapidated, as if it would collapse soon. Even the door had only one hinge left, which could not be closed tightly, leaving a crack. The only light in the house was an oil lamp. Little flames jumping up.The Ugly Duckling carefully squeezed into the room through the crack of the door, and got down under a chair, because the chair was close to the broken door, so that he could run out easily if necessary.However, no one seemed to notice him, so he passed the night unharmed.

In this house lived an old woman with her cat and hen.The old woman spins yarn all day, and then takes it to the nearest town to sell.She loves her cat and hen very much, treats them as her own children, and always spoils them, as if they are the real masters of the house, so what the ugly duckling must get is not the old lady's pity, but the cat and the hen. Kindness to the hens.

Just after dawn the next day, the cat and the hen noticed the guest, and saw the ugly duckling shivering in front of them, looking at the door and preparing to run away at any time.But they didn't look very fierce, so when they came close to the ugly duckling, he was not so afraid.

The hen asked him, "Can you lay eggs?"

The ugly duckling timidly replied: "No."

The hen turned away after hearing this, and the cat came over.

She asked, "Do you bristle when you're angry, or, do you meow when you're happy?" The ugly duckling had to admit that he couldn't do anything but swim, and swimming didn't seem to be of much use to others.

So the cat and the hen went straight to the old woman's bed, and the old woman was not up yet.

They woke up the old woman and said, "There's a good-for-nothing who's taken refuge here. He says he's called Duckling, but he can't lay eggs or meow! What shall we do with him?" "

"Of course we must keep him!" The old woman replied very simply. "Whoever said ducks can't lay eggs is nonsense. In any case, we have to keep him for a while, and we will see the situation."

So the ugly duckling stayed for three weeks and shared the food with the cat and the hen, but he didn't lay any eggs.Whenever the sun comes out and the wind is sunny, the ugly duckling will get tired of staying in the house and want to go swimming.One morning he was so restless that even the cat and the hen noticed.

The hen asked him, "What's the matter with you?"

The Ugly Duckling told her, "I really want to go swimming in the water, plunge in the water and dive all the way to the bottom. You can't imagine how good it feels!"

"I don't think that would be very pleasant," replied the hen, not quite convinced, "and neither would the cat, I guess." Then she turned and asked the cat, "You say so?" The cat replied, "Yes." , what I hate the most is swimming."

The ugly duckling insisted on his own ideas, he said: "I can't stay here any longer, I must go to the water."

The cat and the hen were very upset, and replied angrily: "Well, let's go."

The polite duckling was going to say goodbye to them and thank them for their kindness, but they both turned their backs, so the ugly duckling went out sadly through the broken door.

After going outside, although the ugly duckling was lonely, he was able to enjoy the long-lost sunshine and swim in the water again. He couldn't help shaking his body with excitement, and he didn't care about the rude eyes of others. The ugly duckling spent a happy and contented day like this .But soon winter came, the snow started to fall, everything became wet, and it was uncomfortable to stay anywhere, but the ugly duckling got used to it very quickly, he found that being in the water was a kind of enjoyment, as well as being on the wet ground a pleasure.

One day, when the sun was sinking slowly like a big bright red ball, the surface of the river began to freeze and became hard and slippery. The ugly duckling was confused and at a loss.At this time, he heard a sound of flapping wings, which turned out to be a group of swans flying through the air.They were as white as snow that falls at night, and with their long necks and yellow beaks they stretched out to the south, and they were going to fly away to where the sun shines by day.

The ugly duckling thought: "Oh, it would be great if I could go with them! But of course it is impossible. I am so ugly, how can I deserve to be with those beautiful swans?"

He walked sadly to a pond that was not yet frozen, and dived to the bottom, trying to think that this was the happiest thing in his dreams.

The weather was getting colder day by day, and it was difficult for the ugly duckling to warm himself up. In fact, to be more precise, he had never felt warmer.Finally, on a cold night, his legs moved slowly and the ice caught up with his steps.At daybreak, his feet were frozen in the ice and he couldn't move, as if he had fallen into a swamp, and soon he lost consciousness.

If only a few more hours had passed, the poor ugly duckling would have died.Fortunately for him, however, a man crossing the river on errands spotted him.The man was wearing thick wooden shoes. He walked over and crushed the ice vigorously, rescued the ugly duckling, and put him in the sheepskin coat, so that the frozen bones of the ugly duckling warmed up a little.

The man did not go on, but went home and gave the duckling to his children, who fed the duckling some hot food, and put him in a box by the fire, before going to school.When the kids came back from school, the ugly duckling was much better.For the first time since leaving the old woman's house, he felt so comfortable.The children were kind and wanted to tease the ugly duckling, but alas, the poor little guy hadn't played with him since he was born, so he thought the children were going to bully him, so he flew into the milk pot nervously, and Then he flew into the butter dish, then into the flour bucket, and at last, frightened by the noise and confusion, flew out the door and hid in the snow-covered bushes behind the house.

How on earth did he spend the rest of the winter?Even he himself can't tell clearly, he only knows that he is very poor and has never had enough to eat.But things soon got better, the snow and ice melted on the ground, the sun warmed up, the birds began to sing, and the flowers bloomed on the grass again.When he stood up, he felt a change in himself: his body seemed bigger now, and his wings seemed stronger than when he escaped from the feedlot and wandered into the reeds.He saw a pink mass on the mountainside in the distance, as if something was looking at him, so he really wanted to fly over to see what it was.

Wow, he really flew, what a wonderful feeling to soar in the air!He never thought that flying turned out to be like this!He was a little disappointed as he got closer to the pink clump, which turned out to be just an apple tree in bloom next to a cottage that stretched from the mountainside to the bank of the canal.He flapped slowly down to the edge of the canal, where he remained for a few minutes among the lilac bushes.As he looked about, a flock of swans passed him slowly, and they were as beautiful as the ones the ugly duckling had seen long ago.He watched in fascination as they entered the canal one by one, floating gracefully on the water as if they were one with the water.

"I want to follow them," the ugly duckling said to himself, "although I am ugly, I would rather be killed by them than endure cold and hunger, or be ridiculed and bullied by other chickens and ducks." Soon it was on the surface of the water, and swam quickly behind the group of swans.

The flock of swans sat in the shade of a tree whose tops hung down to brush the green water of the river.The Ugly Duckling soon caught up with them, and some of the cygnets swam happily to him when they saw the Ugly Duckling and called "Welcome", which made the Ugly Duckling very confused.Although he was a little worried, he went forward happily. At this time, an old swan also left the shade of the tree and swam towards the ugly duckling.The ugly duckling said to him: "If I had to die, I would rather die by your hands. I don't know why I was hatched. I'm too ugly to live." He then looked down into the water.

Without hesitation, he looked for the gray figure and the ugly thin neck in the water, but there was nothing. Instead, what he saw was a beautiful white swan!
At this time, a group of children came to the canal to feed the swans with biscuits and cakes. They said excitedly: "The new swan is the most beautiful, his feathers are the whitest, and his mouth is the yellowest." The loneliness and hardships he has experienced are all worth it, otherwise he will never know what true happiness is.

(End of this chapter)