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peasant and his wife revived the poor little creature. When the peasant’s children wanted to play with him, the duckling was frightened. He started up in terror and flew all around the kitchen, knocking over jars of food. The woman shooed the duckling through the open door, and he endured a hard winter all alone.

When spring came, the ugly duckling saw that everything around him had become beautiful. He raised his wings, and, to his delight, he was flying! He rose high into the air and flew until he reached a large garden with a lovely lake. Just in front of him he saw three beautiful swans swimming lightly over the smooth water. The duckling felt more unhappy than ever.

“I want to make friends with them, but I know they will not have me because I am too ugly.” Though he was afraid they would reject him, the duckling could not help but swim toward the beautiful strangers. He tried to hide his face by keeping his head bowed, but there, in the reflection of the water, he saw the most curious thing: Another swan was staring back at him. Why, it was him! He was a swan, too. The other swans rushed to meet him with outstretched wings. They stroked his neck with their bills, for this is the way swans say, “Hello.”

Soon a boy and a girl came into the garden with corn and pieces of bread, which they threw into the water.

“Look!” shouted the boy. “There is a new one!”

The girl said, “And he is the most beautiful of all!”

The newest swan rustled his feathers and cried out to the boy and girl with joy. And that is the story of the ugly duckling who became a swan.

Copyright

THE VELVETEEN RABBIT & OTHER STORIES. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Library of Congress catalog card number: 2007930293

First HarperFestival edition, 2008.

EPub Edition © May 2010 ISBN: 978-0-06-202345-2

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