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THE UGLY DUCKLING
IT was beautiful out in the country, for it was summer-time. The corn was yellow, the oats green; the hay had been made up into ricks down in the green meadows, where the stork was walking about on his long red legs and talking away in Egyptian, for that was the language he had learned from his mother. Round about the corn-fields and meadows were large woods, and in the middle of the woods were deep lakes. Oh, it was indeed beautiful out in the country!
In the midst of the sunny landscape lay an old manor-house with a deep moat around it, and between the wall and the water grew large burdocks, which had attained such a height that little children could stand upright under the tallest of them. It was just as wild there as in the depths of the wood. A duck was sitting on her nest to hatch her little ducklings, but she was almost getting tired of it, for it took such a long time, and she
