The Velveteen Rabbit & Other Stories (5 page)

O
ne sunny day on a little farm, there was a small pond where a duck was sitting on her nest. Four of the eggs were small, one was much larger than the rest, and all seemed ready to hatch.

The four little eggs cracked open and out popped four little ducklings, yellow as daffodils and pretty as could be. The mother duck was pleased, watching the ducklings peeping about the garden. “Just one more to go,” she said, turning her attention to the
largest egg of all. But it did not open. So the mama duck waited.

At last the big egg cracked. “Honk, honk!” said the young one. The mother duck gasped, for the largest one was not yellow as a daffodil but an ashy gray.
He must be a turkey
, she thought.
I have an idea. We'll go swimming in the pond. Then I will know for sure.
For every mother duck knows, turkeys cannot swim.

The mother duck went to the water with the five young ones following behind her. She jumped in with a splash. “Quack, quack,” she cried. One after another the little ones jumped in. The big one swam the fastest of all.

“Look how well he uses his legs!” said
the mother. “That is not a turkey. He is my own child, and he is not so odd after all…if you look at him properly.”

After their morning swim, the mother duck took her ducklings to the farmyard to introduce them to the other ducks. Everywhere they went, there was whispering.

“Look how ugly that one is!” the other ducks said.

“Leave him alone,” the mother duck scolded. “He is a good creature, and he swims more beautifully than the rest.”

But the other ducks on the farm continued to tease him, laugh at him, and call him terrible names. One day, the ugly duckling was just too sad to stay on the farm any longer. He squeezed under the gate and,
because he hadn't learned to fly yet, he began to walk away.

Toward evening the ugly duckling reached a poor little cottage that seemed ready to collapse, and only remained standing because it could not decide on which side to fall first. The back door was not quite closed, so he slipped inside and went to sleep.

In the morning, the strange visitor was discovered by a tomcat and a hen. The tomcat purred at the duckling and the hen started to cluck.

“Can you lay eggs?” the hen asked.

“No.”

“Can you raise your back or purr?” asked the tomcat.

“No.”

“Well,” the hen said, “what can you do?”

The duckling thought for a while. “I like to swim,” he said.

“What an absurd idea,” said the hen. “You have nothing else to do, therefore you have foolish fancies. If you could purr or lay eggs, those thoughts would disappear.”

“But it is so delightful to swim,” said the duckling.

“Delightful, indeed!” said the hen. “Ask the cat—he is the cleverest animal I know—ask him how he would like to swim about on the water! Ask our mistress, the old woman—there is no one in the world more clever than she is. Do you think she would like to swim?”

“You don't understand me,” said the duckling.

“Who can understand you, I wonder? Do you consider yourself cleverer than the cat or the old woman? Believe me, I speak only for your own good. I advise you to lay eggs and learn to purr as quickly as possible.”

“I think it's time for me to go,” said the duckling.

So the duckling left the cottage and soon found a pond where he could swim and dive. But as winter approached, the air grew colder and colder. The duckling had to swim quickly on the water to keep from freezing, but every night the space on which he swam became smaller and smaller.

In the morning, a peasant found the
duckling frozen to the ice. He broke the ice and carried the duckling home. The peasant and his wife revived the poor little creature. When the peasant's children wanted to play with him, the duckling was frightened. He started up in terror and flew all around the kitchen, knocking over jars of food. The woman shooed the duckling through the open door, and he endured a hard winter all alone.

When spring came, the ugly duckling saw that everything around him had become beautiful. He raised his wings, and, to his delight, he was flying! He rose high into the air and flew until he reached a large garden with a lovely lake. Just in front of him he saw three beautiful swans swimming
lightly over the smooth water. The duckling felt more unhappy than ever.

“I want to make friends with them, but I know they will not have me because I am too ugly.” Though he was afraid they would reject him, the duckling could not help but swim toward the beautiful strangers. He tried to hide his face by keeping his head bowed, but there, in the reflection of the water, he saw the most curious thing: Another swan was staring back at him. Why, it was him! He was a swan, too. The other swans rushed to meet him with outstretched wings. They stroked his neck with their bills, for this is the way swans say, “Hello.”

Soon a boy and a girl came into the garden with corn and pieces of bread, which
they threw into the water.

“Look!” shouted the boy. “There is a new one!”

The girl said, “And he is the most beautiful of all!”

The newest swan rustled his feathers and cried out to the boy and girl with joy. And that is the story of the ugly duckling who became a swan.