The Ugly Duckling by Hans Christian Anderson, adapted for storytelling

It was a beautiful summer’s day in the country. Down by the pond in a little piece of shade, a mother duck was sitting on her eggs waiting for them to hatch. She had been waiting a long time and was very tired.

All the sudden she felt movement beneath her. oh she said! The babies  began to crack their shells, and were soon poking their heads out . “quack!” said the mother “quack quack” said the babies!

Then the mother noticed one of the eggs haddent hatched yet. “oh my she said.when are you going to hatch.

An old mother duck came by when she heard the noise

What a beautiful bunch of ducklings she said

But you have one more?! Its so big! Its probably a turkey egg. You should just leave it “quack!”

But the mother duck.  Didn’t want to leave it. She sat another day and another day and finally it started to wiggle! Oh my quack said the mother duch!

Pretty soon a little nose poked its way out. IT was a black nose! And the head popped out,. IT was grey! And a very large duckling, all matted and dark, broke out of its shell. “honk! “ it said.

Oh my! The mother duck said. Are you a turkey?”

The mother gathered them all up and took them to the pond. “We’ll find out “ she said.

And she pushed them into the water. All the ducklings swam and swam even the funny big one.
“I guess you are not a turkey.l” she said. You must just be an ugly duckling!

Well, lets go meet the farm animals. Quack!

She took them to the farm and paraded them through the barn yard. Where all the other animals clapped and welcomed the new little ducklings. Then they saw the big ugly one.

“oh my! They said. “What an ugly duckling!”  and they pecked at it, and poked at it, and pushed it, and didn’t let it have food.

So the ugly duckling said goodby to the farm and went to find his own way.

He slipped out the gate and ran and ran till he found a pond with other ducks. “My you are an ugly duckling they said. But you are welcome to stay here with us.

Then boom! A gun shot! The wild ducks flew into the sky to get away, leaving our little duckling alone again. He stayed their all day hiding in the grass with his nose under his wing hoping the men with the guns wouldn’t find him.

Late that night when the gun shots had stopped, he got up and ran and ran till he found a little cottage. The door was open just a little and he slipped in and fell asleep. In the morning he found a cat and a chicken looking at him. Meow sadi the cat, Cluck cluck said the hen. Who are you?

The old woman who lived there thought she’d keep the duckling and see if he could lay eggs.

Three weeks later the cat and the hen said to the duckling. You cant purr and you cant lay eggs. What can you do. ? what good are you.?

“I can swim. Said the duckling! I can dive!

But if you cant lay eggs, and you cant pur, you are no good as well as ugly and you’d better go.

So the duckling left again and ran and ran and found a pond where he could swim and find food. But he was a lonely bird.

One day when autumn was chaning into winter, he looked up to see a flock of beautiful swans flying across the sky.

Oh you are so beautiful! He wished he could be so wonderful! And he spun around and through his head back and let out a HONK! Ahhhch! What a horrible sound. “I will always be a horrible creature.” He said and hung his head.

Winter came fast and hard. The pond started to freeze over and our ugly ducklying had to swim around and around to keep the ice of the pond as much as he could. But each night his circle of water got smaller and smaller. Til one night, while he was asleep, it froze right up around him till he was stuck fast in the ice.

The next morning, a peasant found him there and broke the ice and took hi m home. But when the warmth woke him up, the children got excited and wanted to play with him and scared him to death. He jumped and flew from corner to corner, throwing this and knocking that! The children were screaming and jumping and diving to catch him and the woman threw the broom at him to stop him. Finally he was able to slip out the door and he ran and ran and ran till he found a quiet place where he could stay the winter. All by himself.

IT was a long cold winter, sometimes with little or nothing to eat, but he made it through. One morning he woke up to feel the sunshine on his back. He stretched out his wings and they felt large and strong. He beat them up and dwon and he lifted of f fo the ground! He flew around and around then sailed far out over the countryside, till he saw a beautiful little garden. He landed there just next to a pretty little pond, where 3 swans were swimming.

Oh if I could only swim in the same pone with these wonderful birds. I would be content. I can stay in this tiny corner where I wont scare them away.

So he slipped into the water to swim behind the grass. But the big beautiful swans saw him and rushed over to him.

Oh no! cried the ugly duckling. They are going to shoo me away!” and he hung his head down to put his nose into the water.

But the beautiful swans didn’t shoo him away. Instead they welcomed him! “Hello friend! Welcome to our pond! Surprised! The ugly duckling opened his eyes and looked into the water. There he saw his reflection! He was not ugly any more! He had grown into a beautiful swan!