In the morning, when the wild ducks rose in the air, they stared at their new
comrade. "What sort of a duck are you?" they all said, coming round
him.
He bowed to them, and was as polite as he could be, but he did not reply to
their question. "You are exceedingly ugly," said the wild ducks,
"but that will not matter if you do not want to marry one of our
family."
Poor thing! he had no thoughts of marriage; all he wanted was permission to lie
among the rushes, and drink some of the water on the moor. After he had been on
the moor two days, there came two wild geese, or rather goslings, for they had
not been out of the egg long, and were very saucy.
"Listen, friend," said one of them to the duckling, "you are so
ugly, that we like you very well. Will you go with us, and become a bird of
passage? Not far from here is another moor, in which there are some pretty wild
geese, all unmarried. It is a chance for you to get a wife; you may be lucky,
ugly as you are."
"Pop, pop," sounded in the air, and the two wild geese fell dead
among the rushes, and the water was tinged with blood. "Pop, pop,"
echoed far and wide in the distance, and whole flocks of wild geese rose up
from the rushes. The sound continued from every direction, for the sportsmen
surrounded the moor, and some were even seated on branches of trees,
overlooking the rushes. The blue smoke from the guns rose like clouds over the
dark trees, and as it floated away across the water, a number of sporting dogs
bounded in among the rushes, which bent beneath them wherever they went. How
they terrified the poor duckling! He turned away his head to hide it under his
wing, and at the same moment a large terrible dog passed quite near him. His
jaws were open, his tongue hung from his mouth, and his eyes glared fearfully.
He thrust his nose close to the duckling, showing his sharp teeth, and then,
"splash, splash," he went into the water without touching him,
"Oh," sighed the duckling, "how thankful I am for being so ugly;
even a dog will not bite me." And so he lay quite still, while the shot
rattled through the rushes, and gun after gun was fired over him. It was late
in the day before all became quiet, but even then the poor young thing did not
dare to move. He waited quietly for several hours, and then, after looking
carefully around him, hastened away from the moor as fast as he could. He ran
over field and meadow till a storm arose, and he could hardly struggle against
it.
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