The Ugly Duckling

On a sunny day in the middle of May a soon to be mother duck sat atop her eggs.

The Mother duck sat and sat for days and days. "Where are my beautiful ducklings?" she thought, "I'm tired of sitting on these eggs."

She felt a wiggle, then a waggle and finally, the mother duck was watching her beautiful ducklings waddle.

The ducklings were so beautiful, the mother duck wanted to show them off by taking them on their very first swim.

As they gathered their suits and packed a picnic, the mother duck noticed an uncracked egg nestled in the weeds.

The egg looked different than the rest. It was an ugly egg.

"Do we have another brother or sister?" one of the ducklings asked excitedly. "I think you do," the mother duck answered as she sat back down to wait for the final egg to hatch.

As the sun came up, the mother duck awoke to an unfamiliar "Piep!" "Piep!"

"He's ugly as his egg!" the mother thought. "Could he really be a duckling?"

The other ducklings noticed their youngest sibling was different. They left him out of games and as the family waddled to the pond the neighbor ducks whispered about the ugly duckling, not realizing how ugly they were acting.

When they reached the pond, the mother duck jumped in with the greatest of ease and her beautiful ducklings followed.

Finally, the ugly duckling jumped into the water with his mother, brothers, and sisters

The mother duck smiled as she watched her ugly duckling swim best of all.

The other ducklings swarmed around the ugly duckling, begging him to teach them to swim so well, and he was never left out of their games again.