The winter was very cruel to the little duckling. But the weather started changing, the duckling was still alive. The birds began to sing again. It was beautiful springtime.
One day the duckling understood that his wings were strong. He could fly! Before he knew what was happening, he was high in the sky. Then he saw a great garden with apple trees. There were beautiful sweet flowers. Oh, it was wonderful here!
Then the duckling saw three lovely white swans. They swam slowly in the river. The duckling remembered these noble birds. He became very sad.
“I can’t fly near these noble birds, they will peck me because I am so very ugly. But I don’t care. Better be killed by them than to be pecked by the ducks, hens, kicked by the hen-yard girl, or to be frozen in winter.”
So he flew into the water and swam to the beautiful swans. They saw him.
“Kill me!” cried the poor duckling, and he bowed his head down over the water. But what did he see there, mirrored in the clear river? It was no longer a dirty, gray duckling. He was a swan!
He felt happy because now he knew who he was. He was born in the duck’s yard but from a swan’s egg. The great swans swam all around him and stroked him with their wings.
Some little children came into the garden. The smallest child cried, “Here’s a new one,” and the others said, “yes, a new swan has come.” They clapped their hands, danced around, and ran to their father and mother.
They threw bread and cake upon the water, and they all said, “The new one is the most beautiful of all. He’s so young and so lovely” The old swans bowed.
Then he felt very shy and hid his head under his wing. He did not know what this was all about. He felt so very happy, but he wasn’t at all proud. A good heart never grows proud. He thought about how unhappy he was when he was a duckling. And now they all called him the most beautiful of all beautiful birds. The sun was so warm. He held his neck high and he cried out loudly: “I never dreamed I could be so happy, when I was the ugly duckling[7]!”
The Well of the World’S End[8]
Once upon a time, there was a girl whose mother had died, and her father married again. Her stepmother hated her because she was more beautiful than herself, and she was very cruel to her. She used to make her do all the servant’s work. At last, one day, the stepmother thought to get rid of her[9]. So she gave her a sieve and said to her: “Go, fill it at the Well of the World’s End and bring it home to me full.”
She thought the girl would not find the Well of the World’ s End. And if she did, how could she bring home a sieve full of water?
Well, the girl started her journey. She asked everyone she met to tell her where the Well of the World’s End was. But nobody knew, and she didn’t know what to do. One day a little old woman told her where it was. Finally she reached the Well of the World’s End. But when she dipped the sieve in the cold, cold water, it all ran out again. She tried and tried again. She sat down and cried as if her heart could break.
Suddenly she heard a croaking voice, and she looked up. She saw a great frog with large eyes looking at her and speaking to her.
“What’s the matter, girl?” it said.
“Oh, dear, oh dear,” she said, “my stepmother has sent me all this long way to fill this sieve with water from the Well of the World’s End, and I can’t fill it.”
“Well,” said the frog, “do whatever I ask you for a whole night long, I’ll tell you how to fill it.”
So the girl agreed, and the frog said:
“Stop it with moss and put some clay, And then it will carry the water away”; and then it jumped into the Well of the World’s End.
So the girl found some moss, and she put some clay. Then she dipped it once again into the Well of the World’s End. This time, the water didn’t run out, and she turned to go away.
Just then the frog popped up its head out of the Well of the World’s End, and said: “Remember your promise.”
“All right,” said the girl, “What can a frog do to me?”
So she went back to her stepmother, and brought the sieve full of water from the Well of the World’s End. The stepmother was angry, but she said nothing at all.
That very evening they heard something tap-tapping at the door low down, and a voice cried out:
“Open the door, my heart,Open the door, my darling;Mind you the words that you and I spoke,Down in the meadow,at the World’s End Well.”“What is it?” cried out the stepmother, and the girl told her everything, and what she had promised the frog.
“Girls must keep their promises[10],” said the stepmother. “Go and open the door!” She was glad the girl would serve a nasty frog.
So the girl went and opened the door, and there was the frog from the Well of the World’s End. And it jumped and reached the girl, and then it said:
“Lift me to your knee, my heart;Lift me to your knee, my darling;Remember the wordsyou and I spoke, By the World’s End Well.”But the girl didn’t like to do it. Her stepmother said: “Lift it up! Girls must keep their promises!”
So finally she lifted the frog up on to her lap, and it lay there for a time. At last it said:
“Give me some supper, my heart,Give me some supper, my darling;Remember the wordsyou and I spoke,By the Well of the World’s End.”Well, she didn’t mind doing that, so she got it a bowl of milk and bread. She fed the frog well. And when the frog finished, it said:
“Go with me to bed, my heart,Go with me to bed, my darling;Mind you the words you spoke to me,Down by the cold well, so weary.”But that the girl didn’t want to do that. But her stepmother said: “Do what you promised, girl! Girls must keep their promises.”
So the girl took the frog with her to bed, and kept it as far away from her as she could. In the morning, the frog said:
“Chop off my head, my heart,Chop off my head, my darling;Remember the promise you made to me,Down by the cold well, so weary.”At first the girl wouldn’t do that. She felt sorry for the frog. It helped her at the Well of the World’s End and was not a bad frog at all. But when the frog said the words over again she went and took an axe and chopped off its head, and oh! there stood before her a young prince. He told her his story. He had been enchanted by a wicked magician, and he could never be unspelled till some girl would do what he asked for a whole night, and chop off his head at the end of it.
The stepmother was surprised when she found the young prince instead of the ugly frog. And she wasn’t best pleased, when the prince told her that he was going to marry her stepdaughter. They got married, went to live in the castle of the king, his father.
The Fish and the Ring
Once upon a time, there was a mighty Baron in the North Country who was a great magician and knew everything that would come to pass[11]. So one day, when his little boy was four years old, he looked into the Book of Fate[12] to see what would happen to him. And to his dismay, he found that his son would wed a lowly maid[13] that had just been born in a small house. Now the Baron knew the father of the little girl was very, very poor, and he had five children already. So he called for his horse and rode to the father’s house and saw him sitting by the door, sad and doleful. So he dismounted and went up to him and said, “What is the matter, my good man?” And the man said, “Well, your honour[14], the fact is, I have five children already, and now the sixth one comes, a little girl, and where to get the bread from to fill their mouths, that’s more than I can say.”
“Don’t cry, my dear man,” said the Baron. “If that’s your trouble, I can help you. I’ll take away the last little one, and you won’t have to bother about her.”
“Thank you kindly, sir,” said the man, and he went in and brought out the little girl and gave her to the Baron, who mounted his horse and rode away with her. And when he got by the bank of the river, he threw the little girl into the river and rode off to his castle.
But the little girl didn’t sink; her clothes kept her up for a time[15], and she floated, and she floated, till she was cast ashore just in front of a fisherman’s hut. There the fisherman found her, and took pity on the poor little girl and took her into his house, and she lived there till she was fifteen years old. So she became a fine handsome girl.