H. C. Andersen best fairy tales / Лучшие сказки Г.Х. Андерсена. Уровень 1

Then the woman clapped her hands, which frightened him still more. He flew first into the butter cask, then into the meal tub and out again. The woman screamed and struck at him with the tongs; the children laughed and screamed and tried to catch him. But he escaped luckily.

The door was open; the poor duckling slipped out among the bushes and lay down exhausted in the snow.

It is very sad to relate all the misery and privations which the poor little duckling endured during the hard winter. But when it passed he found himself[8 - found himself – очутился] one morning in a moor, amongst the rushes.

He felt the warm sun and heard the lark. It was a beautiful spring.

Then the young bird felt that his wings were strong. He flapped them against his sides and rose high into the air. They bore him onwards, and finally he found himself in a large garden. The apple trees were in full blossom, and the fragrant elders bent their long green branches down to the stream. Everything looked beautiful in the freshness of early spring.

From a thicket came three beautiful white swans. They were rustling their feathers and swimming lightly over the water. The duckling saw these lovely birds and felt more unhappy than ever.

“I will fly to these royal birds,” he exclaimed, “and they will kill me because. I am very ugly, and I must not approach them. But it does not matter. Let them kill me. It’s better. The ducks peck me, the hens beat me, the maiden who feeds the poultry pushes me.

If they don’t kill me, I’ll starve with hunger in the winter”.

Then he flew to the water and swam towards the beautiful swans. When they saw the stranger they rushed to meet him.

“Kill me,” said the poor bird and he bent his head down to the surface of the water and awaited death.

But what did he see in the clear stream below? His own image-no longer a dark-gray bird, ugly and disagreeable, but a graceful and beautiful swan!

He was born in a duck’s nest in a farmyard but he came from a swan’s egg! He now felt glad.

He suffered sorrow and trouble, and it enabled him to enjoy all the pleasure and happiness around him. The great swans swam round the newcomer and stroked his neck with their beaks.

Into the garden presently came some little children and threw bread and cake into the water.

“See,” cried the youngest, “there is a new one;” and the rest were delighted, and ran to their father and mother.