one day,a mother Duck and her two little Duck

one day,a mother Duck and her two little Duck
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The country was beautiful. There were woods along the sides of the fields. In the woods, there was an old hut and many small rivers. The grass near the rivers was very long; no one ever went there. One day, a duck was sitting on her eggs in these woods. She sat there for a long time and she began to grow unhappy. The other ducks liked to stay in the rivers. They did not want to sit in the long grass near her.
At last, the eggs opened and little ducks came out of them. “Chick. Chick. Chick. Chick.” he little ducks said as they put their heads outside the eggs.
“Quack. Quack.” aid the old duck. Then the little ducks stood up and looked at the grass.
“How big everything is!” hey said.
The old duck got up:” I have not got you all!” she said, “The largest egg is still here! It is not open. How long will this last? I don’t want to sit here all day.” Then she sat down again.
Another duck came to see her:” How are you?” she said.
“This egg makes me stay here so long.” the old duck said, “It was not open, but look at the others, they are the prettiest little duck that I have ever seen.”
“Let me see the egg which was not open.” the other duck said, “Ah, yes, it is a big egg. Do not sit on it any longer. Show the other little ones how to go into the river.”
“I will stay on it a little longer.” the duck said.
The big egg opened at last. “Chick. Chick. Chick. Chick.” Said the little one and it fell out. But…oh, how big and ugly it was! The duck looked at it. “That’s a very big duck.” She said, “None of the others at all like it. But it must go into the water too. I’ll put it in now.”
The next day, the old duck took all the little ducks down to the river. She went into the water. “Quack. Quack.” she cried, and one little duck after another jumped in. The water went over their heads but they all came up again, over there, even the ugly one.
“See how it goes through the water. It is a good little duck. It is my own child.” The old duck said, “It is very pretty when you look at it now. Quack. Quack. Come with me. I shall show you many things and I shall take you to see all the other ducks, but stay near me or some one may walk on you. Do not too near the cat.”
So they went to see the other ducks in the garden. There was much noise.
“Stay near me and speak to the old duck which you see over there. She is the oldest of the ducks here.” The duck said to her children.
The little ducks did as they were told. But the other ducks who lived in the garden looked ay them and said: “Now there are some more ducks, there are too many of us. And look, how ugly that one is! We shall send him away.” Then one of the ducks ran to him and bit him.
“Do not touch him.” the old duck said, “He is doing nothing to hurt you.”
“He is big and ugly, so we will bite him.”
“He is not beautiful, but he is a very good child.” The old duck told the other ducks, “He is very good in the water. I think he will grow like others in time. He may even look smaller. He stayed so long in his egg. That is why he is not the same.”
But the poor little duck who was the last out of its egg was bitten by the ducks and hens. “It is so big!” they all said.
The poor little thing did not know what to do. He was very unhappy because he was so ugly. After the first day, he grew more and more unhappy. No one wanted to speak to him or to go near him, even his brothers and sisters were not kind to him. They said: “I wish the cat will catch you. You, ugly duck!” And even the old duck said: “I wish you are far away.”
The ugly little duck ran out of the garden. The little birds in the trees were very afraid. “That is because I am so ugly.” the little duck thought. He shut his eyes and ran on. At last, he came to a big field where some wild ducks lived. He lay down and stayed all the night there.
In the morning the wild ducks got up and saw the little duck.
“Who are you?” they asked. The ugly little duck was very nice to them.
“you are very ugly.” the wild ducks said, “But we will still like you if you do not marry any of our children.”——Poor duck, he never thought of marrying, all he wanted was to sit in the long grass and drink some water.
He stayed there for two days. On the nest day, two wild geese came.
“You are very ugly, but we like you.” they said, “Will you come with us and be a wild bird?”
“Bang!” It was the noise made by a gun. The two wild geese fell down dead in the grass. “Bang!” It was the noise of a gun again. Many wild geese went up in the sky from the long grass. “Bang!” there were many men with guns. They were shooting the wild geese. They were on all sides of the little duck. Some were even sitting in the trees. Their dogs ran through the long grass. How afraid the little duck was! He wanted to hide his head so that he could not see. Just then, a big dog stood near him. The big dog’s mouth opened when he saw the little duck. Then he looked again and went away without touching the little duck.
“I am glad that I am ugly.” said the little duck, “I am ugly that even a dog will not eat me.”
And now, he lay still. The noise of the shooting could be heard all day. Even at night, the poor little duck was afraid to get up. He waited a long time before he could look through the grass. Then he ran away as quickly as he could.
At last, he came to a little hut. The door of the hut was open, so the little duck walked inside. An old woman lived in the hut with her cat and her hen. The old woman called the cat “my little son” The hen laid very good eggs and the old woman loved her as her own child.
The next morning, they found the little duck in the room. The cat and the hen began to make a noise.
“What is it?” the old woman asked, looking everywhere in the room. But her eyes were not good, so she thought that the young duck was a fat old duck who had lose her way. “I shall now have duck’s eggs. This is very good.” she said.
And so, the old woman、the cat and the hen all waited for the little duck to lay eggs. They waited for a long time but no eggs came. The cat and the hen were angry with the little duck.
“Can you lay eggs?” the hen asked.
“No.”
“Then do not speak.”
And the cat said: “Can you make a nice like I do?”——Pur.Pur.
“No.”
“Then you must not speak when we are speaking.”
So the little duck sat alone in the room and was very unhappy. He began to thing of his friends and the sun. He wanted to go into the river again and he told the hen about this.
“Are you ill?” the hen asked, “You have nothing to do and you think about these things. If you lay eggs, you will not remember them.”
“But it is so nice to go into the river.” the little duck said, “It is nice when the water goes over your head.”
“Now I know that you are ill.” the hen said, “Ask the cat what she thinks. Ask her if she would like the water to go over her head. Asks the old woman, there is no one alive who knows more than she does. Do you think that she would like to fall in the river?”
“You do not know how nice it is.” the little duck said.
“What? We do not know how nice it is? So you think you know more than the cat and the old woman? You should thank us for being so kind to you. Are you not living in the nice room with nice people? Learn to lay eggs or to pur.”
“I think I will go into the fields and the woods again.” the little duck said.
“Go at once.” answer the hen.
So the little duck went. He went to the river and jumped into the water. But no one spoke to him because he was so ugly. Soon, the days became cold and began to snow. The poor little duck did not find that easy to stay alive.
One night, just as the sun was going down in the sky, the little duck saw some large and beautiful birds. He had never seen anything so beautiful before. Their bodies were white. They were swans. They went up and up in the sky, away from the cold country and go over the sea to hotter countries. The ugly little duck looked at them for a long time and cried out after them. Ah, he would always remember these beautiful birds. When he could see them on longer, he put his head in the cold water. He did not know what the birds were called. He did not know where they were going. But he loved them more than anything. He did not want to be as beautiful as they were, he would be happy if he could just live with the other ducks in the garden.
But the river was so cold, so cold. The little duck could never stay still in the water. It was so very cold. At last, he fell down in the snow. He could live no longer.