It was beautiful summer day. There were deep canals round an old house and there grew very high reeds on the water’s edge. It was very lonely place therefore a duck make a nest here. She was sitting on her eggs. The eggs began to crack and one little duckling after another appeared. But one egg didn’t crack. The duck sat on it again and she was waiting. The egg cracked at last and last duckling appeared. But it was very large, grey and ugly. The next day the weather was; very nice and therefore the mother-duck take her family to the water. One duck after another jumped into the water and swam quite easily. The ugly duckling refused jump in, but finally he jumped into the water too and swam.

Then they went to the yard next to the old house. The other ducks, which were in the yard, looked at them and said evil things about the large duck and people from the farm, expelled him. So the large, grey duckling flew away. At last he came to a moor, where lived two wild geese. He was there whole night. In the morning the wild geese saw him and they said, that he is very ugly. Suddenly they heard a shot they flew away. But the shot sound again and both geese lay dead in the moor. The poor little duckling was very frightened. He turned his head under his wing and at a moment a dog came to the duckling and looked at him, but in while the dog left. The duckling thought, that didn’t bite him, because he is so ugly. Then he waited for a lot of hours.

He looked round him and then he ran away from the moor. He run over fields and the weather was very bad. He looked for safety place. In the evening he found an old house and he saw, that the door is open. So he went into the room. There lived an old woman in this room with her cat and hen. The cat and the hen said evil things about the duckling, so the ugly duckling went away and he was alone again. He found water, so he jumped into it and swam. The autumn came: the leaves were yellow and brown and the air was very cold. The duckling saw very beautiful birds, which had long necks and long red legs.

Those were swans and they flew away from these cold country. The winter came and the weather was colder and colder. Snow and ice was there. It wasn’t water, only ice. The duckling was frozen in the ice. Early in the morning a man went around and saw the duckling in the ice. So he carried him at home to his wife. The children would play with him, but he thought, that they want to tease him. So he jumped into the milk and into the flour. The woman screamed and he jumped out to the bushes. At last the spring came and the sun shining warmly. The ugly duckling flew up to the sky and he saw three beautiful swans. He flew to them and he find out that he isn’t an ugly duckling, but he is a swan. Some children saw him and they said, that the new swan in the water is very beautiful. And he was very happy.