The Ugly Duckling: A Classic Tale of Transformation

The Arrival of the Ducklings

Like every summer, Mother Duck sat on her nest. All the barnyard friends wanted to see her ducklings, which were always the most handsome of all. The day came when the ducks began to open the eggs little by little, and everyone gathered at the nest to see them first.

The Last Egg Hatches

One by one, six precious ducklings came out, each accompanied by shouts of joy from Mother Duck and her friends. They were so happy that it took a while to realize that one egg, the largest of the seven, had not yet opened.

All turned their attention to the egg that remained intact, including the newborn ducklings, waiting to see some sign of movement. Soon, the egg began to break, and out came a smiling duck. He was bigger than his brothers, but—surprise, surprise!—he was far uglier and more ungainly than the other six.

A Difficult Life in the Barnyard

Mother Duck was mortified to have had such an ugly duckling and pushed him aside with her wing while paying attention to the other six. The duckling remained sad because he started to realize that they did not like him.

The days passed and his appearance did not improve; on the contrary, it worsened. He grew very fast and was skinny, gawky, and quite awkward, poor thing. His brothers played heavy jokes on him constantly, laughing at how ugly and awkward he was.

The Search for Acceptance

The duckling decided he should find a place where he could find friends who really wanted him despite his disastrous appearance. Early in the morning, before the farmer awoke, he fled through a hole in the fence.

He came to another farm, where an old woman took him in. The ugly duckling believed he had found a place where he would finally be loved and cared for, but he was wrong. The old woman was unkind and only wanted the poor duckling to serve as her main course. He had to run away from there, too.

Winter came, and the ugly duckling was almost starving because he had to look for food between the ice and snow. He also had to flee from hunters who wanted to shoot him.

The Beautiful Transformation

At last, spring came. He went to a pond where he found the most beautiful birds he had ever seen. They were elegant, graceful, and moved with such distinction that he felt totally self-conscious because he was so clumsy. Anyway, since he had nothing to lose, he approached them and asked if he could swim with them.

The swans—for the birds he saw in the pond were swans—answered:

• "Sure, you're one of us!"

To which the duck replied: "Do not mock me! I know I'm ugly and awkward, but you should not laugh so..."

"Look at your reflection in the pond," they told him, "and see how we do not lie."

The duck entered the clear water incredulously, and what he saw left him amazed. During the long winter, he had turned into a beautiful swan! That gawky, ugly duckling was now the whitest and most elegant swan of all who were in the pond.

That was how the ugly duckling joined his family and lived happily ever after.

THE END