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  Once upon a time down on an old farm, 

lived a duck family, and the mother duck 

had been sitting on a clutch of new eggs. 

One morning, the eggs hatched and out 

popped six ducklings, But one egg was 

bigger than the rest, and it didn't hatch.  

The mother duck couldn't remember laying 

the seventh egg. How did it get there? 

Then suddenly it started to hatch. 

"Did I count the eggs wrongly?" Mother 

Duck wondered. But before she had time to 

think about it, the last egg finally hatched. 

A strange looking duckling with gray 

feathers that should have been yellow 

looked at his mother. The ducklings grew 

quickly, but Mother Duck worried about the 

strange duckling.

"I can't understand how this duckling can be 

one of mine!" she said to herself,   Well, the 

gray duckling certainly wasn't pretty, and since 

he ate more than his brothers and sisters, he 

was outgrowing them. As the days went by, 

the poor ugly duckling became more and more 

unhappy. His brothers and sisters didn't want 

to play with him, he was so

clumsy, and all the other animals simply 

laughed at him. He felt sad and lonely, while 

Mother Duck did her best to console him.

  "Poor little ugly duckling!" she would say. 

"Why are you so different from the 

others?" And the ugly duckling felt worse 

than ever,   he felt nobody wanted him.

 "Nobody loves me, they all tease me! Why 

am I different from my brothers and 

sisters?"

Then one day, at sunrise, he ran away from 

the farmyard. He stopped at a pond and began 

to question all the other birds. "Do you know 

of any ducklings with gray feathers like mine?" 

But everyone shook their heads. "We don't 

know anyone as ugly as you." The ugly 

duckling did not lose heart, however, and kept 

on making inquiries.

He went to another pond, where a pair of 

large geese gave him the same answer to 

his question. They started to warn him, 

"Don't stay here! Go away! It's dangerous. 

There are men with guns around here!" 

The duckling was sorry he had ever left the 

farmyard. 

Then one day, he traveled to an old 

country woman's cottage. Thinking he was 

a stray goose, she caught him.

   "I'll put this in a hutch. I hope it's a 

female and lays plenty of eggs!" said the 

old woman,   though her eyesight was poor. 

But the ugly duckling laid no eggs. The hen 

nearby kept frightening him. 

"Wait! If you don't lay eggs, the old woman 

will cook you in the pot!" said the hen, The 

poor ugly duckling was so scared that he 

lost his appetite, though the old woman 

kept feeding him lots of food and she was 

grumbling: "If you won't lay eggs, at least 

hurry up and get plump!" 

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