Instead of going on his work, the man turned back and took the bird to his children, who gave him a warm mess to eat and put him in a box by the fire, and when they came back from school he was much more comfortable than he had been since he had left the old woman's cottage.
They were kind little children, and wanted to play with him; but, alas! the poor fellow had never played in his life, and thought they wanted to tease him, and flew straight into the milk-pan, and then into the butter-dish, and from that into the meal- barrel, and at last, terrified at the noise and confusion, right out of the door, and hid himself in the snow amongst the bushes at the back of the house.
He never could tell afterwards exactly how he had spent the rest of the winter.He only knew that he was very miserable and that he never had enough to eat.But by-and-by things grew better.The earth became softer, the sun hotter, the birds sang, and the flowers once more appeared in the grass.When he stood up, he felt different, somehow, from what he had done before he fell asleep among the reeds to which he had wandered after he had escaped from the peasant's hut.His body seemed larger, and his wings stronger.Something pink looked at him from the side of a hill.He thought he would fly towards it and see what it was.
Oh, how glorious it felt to be rushing through the air, wheeling first one way and then the other! He had never thought that flying could be like that! The duckling was almost sorry when he drew near the pink cloud and found it was made up of apple blossoms growing beside a cottage whose garden ran down to the banks of the canal.He fluttered slowly to the ground and paused for a few minutes under a thicket of syringas, and while he was gazing about him, there walked slowly past a flock of the same beautiful birds he had seen so many months ago.
Fascinated, he watched them one by one step into the canal, and float quietly upon the waters as if they were part of them.
'I will follow them,' said the duckling to himself; 'ugly though I am, I would rather be killed by them than suffer all I have suffered from cold and hunger, and from the ducks and fowls who should have treated me kindly.' And flying quickly down to the water, he swam after them as fast as he could.
It did not take him long to reach them, for they had stopped to rest in a green pool shaded by a tree whose branches swept the water.And directly they saw him coming some of the younger ones swam out to meet him with cries of welcome, which again the duckling hardly understood.
He approached them glad, yet trembling, and turning to one of the older birds, who by this time had left the shade of the tree, he said:
'If I am to die, I would rather you should kill me.I don't know why Iwas ever hatched, for I am too ugly to live.' And as he spoke, he bowed his head and looked down into the water.
Reflected in the still pool he saw many white shapes, with long necks and golden bills, and, without thinking, he looked for the dull grey body and the awkward skinny neck.But no such thing was there.
Instead, he beheld beneath him a beautiful white swan!
'The new one is the best of all,' said the children when they came down to feed the swans with biscuit and cake before going to bed.'His feathers are whiter and his beak more golden than the rest.' And when he heard that, the duckling thought that it was worth while having undergone all the persecution and loneliness that he had passed through, as otherwise he would never have known what it was to be really happy.
[Hans Andersen.]
