they all said,coming round him.
  He bowed to them, and was as polite as he could be, but he did notreply to their question. "You are exceedingly ugly," said the wildducks, "but that will not matter if you do not want to marry one ofour family."
  Poor thing! he had no thoughts of marriage; all he wanted waspermission to lie among the rushes, and drink some of the water on themoor. After he had been on the moor two days, there came two wildgeese, or rather goslings, for they had not been out of the egglong, and were very saucy. "Listen, friend," said one of them to theduckling, "you are so ugly, that we like you very well. Will you gowith us, and become a bird of passage? Not far from here is anothermoor, in which there are some pretty wild geese, all unmarried. Itis a chance for you to get a wife; you may be lucky, ugly as you are."
  "Pop, pop," sounded in the air, and the two wild geese fell deadamong the rushes, and the water was tinged with blood. "Pop, pop,"echoed far and wide in the distance, and whole flocks of wild geeserose up from the rushes. The sound continued from every direction, forthe sportsmen surrounded the moor, and some were even seated onbranches of trees, overlooking the rushes. The blue smoke from theguns rose like clouds over the dark trees, and as it floated awayacross the water, a number of sporting dogs bounded in among therushes, which bent beneath them wherever they went. How they terrifiedthe poor duckling! He turned away his head to hide it under hiswing, and at the same moment a large terrible dog passed quite nearhim. His jaws were open, his tongue hung from his mouth, and hiseyes glared fearfully. He thrust his nose close to the duckling,showing his sharp teeth, and then, "splash, splash," he went intothe water without touching him, "Oh," sighed the duckling, "howthankful I am for being so ugly; even a dog will not bite me." Andso he lay quite still, while the shot rattled through the rushes,and gun after gun was fired over him. It was late in the day beforeall became quiet, but even then the poor young thing did not dare tomove. He waited quietly for several hours, and then, after lookingcarefully around him, hastened away from the moor as fast as he could.He ran over field and meadow till a storm arose, and he could hardlystruggle against it. Towards evening, he reached a poor little cottagethat seemed ready to fall, and only remained standing because it couldnot decide on which side to fall first. The storm continued soviolent, that the duckling could go no farther; he sat down by thecottage, and then he noticed that the door was not quite closed inconsequence of one of the hinges having given way. There was thereforea narrow opening near the bottom large enough for him to slip through,which he did very quietly, and got a shelter for the night. A woman, atom cat, and a hen lived in this cottage. The tom cat, whom themistress called, "My little son," was a great favorite; he could raisehis back, and purr, and could even throw out sparks from his fur if itwere stroked the wrong way. The hen had very short legs, so she wascalled "Chickie short legs." She laid good eggs, and her mistressloved her as if she had been her own child. In the morning, thestrange visitor was discovered, and the tom cat began to purr, and thehen to cluck.
  "What is that noise about?" said the old woman, looking roundthe room, but her sight was not very good; therefore, when she saw theduckling she thought it must be a fat duck, that had strayed fromhome. "Oh what a prize!"