FAMILY FOLKLORE - Family Customs

Author: (USA) Brinkhoff, (USA) Senna
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-01-01
Features: When the largest egg in the nest finally hatches, the mother duck is surprised: the little one that emerges from the broken shell looks nothing like the other babies in the nest. "Look how big he is!" the mother duck says to her children. "Much bigger than any of you." "And he's so ugly," one little duck chimes in. "Our feathers are yellow, but his are dark gray." "He doesn't talk like us," another little one quacks. Treated with such discrimination by the other ducklings, the ugly duckling runs away. He discovers a group of wild ducks living in a nearby pond, but when he tries to approach them, these wild ducks also say the same things to him. "You don't look like us!" "You don't talk like us!" "Get away!" They flap their wings at the ugly duckling, quacking loudly to scare him. The ugly duckling then comes to the courtyard by the barn, where a group of chickens are pecking at corn kernels. "Can I eat corn with you?" he asks timidly. The hen raises her head and examines him from top to bottom. "Wow, you're so strange, and your voice is so funny." The ugly duckling realizes what will happen next and quickly escapes the barnyard before the hen chases him away. For a short time, the poor ugly duckling can only hide in an old woman's house and keep company with a cat. He tries to be friends with the cat and even tries to imitate the cat, because the owner seems to be particularly fond of the cat. But after staying there for just a couple of days, the ugly duckling's desire to swim in the water becomes stronger. "Water?" the cat purrs. "You want to go into the water?" he arches his back and meows loudly. "You're really a very strange, very strange creature." Tired and sad, the ugly duckling longs to find his home. Finally, he comes to the edge of a pond and meets the most beautiful birds he can imagine. For the whole day, he hides in the grass and watches them, so that they won't chase him away. Sometimes, these beautiful birds swim gracefully in the water, their slender, graceful necks reflected in the calm surface below. The ugly duckling stretches his neck as far as he can and feels that his legs also long to swim in the water. Sometimes, these elegant birds take flight, their strong white wings sweeping gracefully through the air, soaring into the sky even higher than the treetops. The ugly duckling flaps his wings; though he tries not to make a sound, he can't help but let out a soft quack—the kind that belongs to him and that other animals find strange. Instantly, the birds hear his voice and respond to him with the same sound. They fly to where the ugly duckling is hiding and land on the water in front of the grass. "Come swim with us," they invite him warmly. At first, the ugly duckling is still too afraid to join them. "I can't, I'm just an ugly duckling," he says. P11-13