Like all other stories, this one too begins with… once upon a time, there was a duck who was patiently brooding her eggs, dreaming of the moment she would become a mother. One cold spring day, one of the eggs hatched. And then another. And another. One by one, the ducklings came out and started quacking so merrily, that all the duck’s neighbours were surprised by the rattle. 

A single egg was left in the nest and simply would not hatch.

– Piep-piep! Quack-quack! How big the world is! cried the little ducklings.

But the Mother-Duck was worried. What was wrong with the last egg? Why wouldn’t it break? Finally, after one whole day and one whole night, the last duckling crept out – he was far too large and far too ugly, with grey feathers. Oh, but the other ducklings were so yellow! Beautiful and clean, just like their mother!

Well, the following day, the Mother-Duck took her ducklings to the pond. When she went quack-quack, all the ducklings swam merrily. In the language of ducks, quack-quack can mean all sorts of things, including 1, 2, 3 aaaaaaaand in you go!

– Quack-quack! Now let me introduce you to the birds in the big yard! Bow your heads and say quack. And watch out for the cats – they are always hungry.

– As if this place weren’t crowded enough already, said a gabby hen. There’s not much room left with all these feathers around. And look at that one, he’s so ugly! Too ugly! No, he needs to go! We don’t like him!

And so all the birds in the yard sent the ugly gray duckling away. This is why he decided to look for a new home and jumped over the fence, towards the big pond, were all the wild ducks were.

– What sort of an odd bird are you? they asked.

As they were laughing at the ugly duckling, a hunter snuck out of the bushes. Bang! Bang! and entire flocks of wild geese flew from the reeds. Bang! Bang! All you could hear were hound dogs barking. Frightened, the duckling saw a large, menacing dog, right next to him. The dog growled at him, but on it went, leaving him alone.   

– I’m so ugly, that not even dogs want to come near me!

When the hunting party was over, the ugly duckling waddled on, alone and sad, without any friends, and got to a small, miserable hut. Here lived an old lady, with nothing but a cat and a hen.

– What sort of a creature are you? asked the old lady.

As she couldn’t see very well, she thought the duckling was a large, fat duck, who had lost her way.

– Now I shall have fresh eggs every day, she thought. You can stay here, if you wish!

After a few days, our duckling started missing the water and really wanted to swim, so he left. He swam, he plunged, but so ugly was he, that no creature would even look at him! Autumn came around, and the leaves started turning and drying up. It was cold, so, so cold. The poor duckling was miserable.

One evening, as he was swimming, he saw the most beautiful birds in the world! They were snow white and had long necks. They were swans. They sat back for a while and then spread their majestic wings and flew towards warmer lands. All of a sudden, the ugly duckling started feeling strange. He didn’t know what these birds were called, but he liked them a lot.

As time passed, the winter grew harsh, very harsh indeed. Happily, one morning a peasant passed by and took the ugly duckling home, and so he survived the first snow. Come spring time, the duck noticed his wings had grown and he could now fly up, up and away. One day he flew over a large, beautiful yard, lying by a deep lake. From the reeds, there came three swans, floating gracefully.

– I’ll go talk to these birds, even if they treat me poorly, like everybody else! I don’t care, I need to talk to them!

And lo and behold! The moment they saw him, the swans came lovingly towards him. It was as if they had known each other all along.

Looking at his own reflection in the water, our duckling noticed he had started resembling the swans around it. Well, he too was a swan, with a beautiful beak and long feathers. Although he had been mistreated all his life, he was now the most beautiful of birds.

– Back when I was just an ugly duckling, I could hardly dream of such happiness! How did a swan egg end up in a duck’s nest? Well, I don’t know, but it doesn’t really matter, I forgive them all. If you are different, that doesn’t mean you are ugly, or evil or lazy, because there must be so many good things about you!