The Ugly Duckling
Once upon a time, there was a mother duck with glittering brown-
grey feathers and a beautiful splash of blue.
She was sitting on her eggs in the summer sun, settled comfortably on
her nest, hidden among the reeds.
One morning, they began to move!
When she got up, she found that every one of her eggs had hatched
and that her beautiful ducklings, all yellow, had been born. Well
almost all... Among them was an odd little duckling, all grey with a
few black spots. What on earth had happened? Ducks don’t give birth
to ducklings this colour! How strange…
The mother duck, although taken aback, decided to take her little
ones on an outing. The funny grey duckling lagged behind, not really
sure what to do. To make matters worse, he was taller and heavier
than his siblings.
[How many ducklings can you count?]
The four yellow ducklings were not very kind to the grey duckling.
He was just too different from them, with his black beak, his grey feathers and
his feet, which were webbed like theirs but black in colour. They bullied him
relentlessly all day long.
They cruelly called him the Ugly Duckling.
Our poor little grey duckling was so sad, so unhappy, that he decided
to leave this strange «family» into which he had been born.
He left with his head bowed, sobbing, hoping to find happiness
elsewhere.
Autumn arrived. The trees began to turn magnificent colours: red,
yellow, orange, brown. The duckling had grown but still had his grey
feathers, dark bill and black webbed feet. Even the birds of the forest
didn’t like him and were mean to him. They constantly taunted and
shunned him.
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The Ugly Duckling
Our ugly duckling continued on his quest to find friends; other birds who
would accept him for the way he was.
Along the way, he met some geese taking off for hot countries, who were his
companions for a few days.
Then hunting season arrived, and, alas! He was captured by hunters who
were particularly delighted to have a decent duck to take home. Luckily, he
managed to escape them and their fearsome dog.
Soon, winter arrived, with freezing temperatures and a thick blanket of snow.
An old man found the duckling hiding in the frozen grass. He was trapped in
the ice.
The man took pity on the duckling and decided to take him home to shelter
from the cold.
The elderly couple who took in the duckling thought at first that they had a
mallard, a female duck, who would provide them with delicious eggs all
through the winter.
But they were quickly disappointed. After a few weeks, the old woman
became angry that she didn’t have any eggs. «That blasted duck! It’s about
time you were on my plate instead of me feeding you! »
Her husband, taking pity on the duckling, who had grown considerably and
whose plumage had lightened to become a very pale grey, decided to
put him outside before his wife ate him for dinner!
Poor little duckling, it seems that no one loved him. Off he went again in
search of friends.
After flying for some time, our duck alighted at the edge of a lake.
There, looking into the water, he suddenly realised that he was no longer an
ugly duckling, but a magnificent swan!
In fact, he had never been a duck! So that was the problem!
Cygnets are born grey and are already larger than ducklings. His egg must
have ended up in the duck’s nest by mistake.
After so much sadness and disappointment, our handsome swan eventually
settled with a flock of other swans, all as majestic as he was.
Finally, our duck-turned-swan had found peace and happiness with his own
kind! He went on to grow up into a most beautiful swan and lived happily
ever after!
An original story by BIGBEN for the Storyteller Owly or Owlivia, illustrated by Maud Poulain. 2
