heir expeditions. Before a start was made a raven
was let loose, and the direction of his flight gave the viking ships
their course. In this manner, according to the old Norse legends, did
Floki discover Iceland; and many other extraordinary things happened
under the influence of the raven.

[Illustration: "EVERY DESCRIPTION OF BIRD WAS REPRESENTED"]

THE UGLY DUCKLING

BY HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN

It was glorious out in the country. It was summer, and the corn-fields
were yellow, and the oats were green; the hay had been put up in stacks
in the green meadows, and the stork went about on his long red legs, and
chattered Egyptian, for this was the language he had learned from his
good mother. All around the fields and meadows were great forests, and
in the midst of these forests lay deep lakes. Yes, it was really
glorious out in the country. In the midst of the sunshine there lay an
old farm, surrounded by deep canals, and from the wall down to the water
grew great burdocks, so high that little children could stand upright
under the loftiest of them. It was just as wild there as in the deepest
wood. Here sat a Duck upon her nest, for she had to hatch her young
ones; but she was almost tired out before the little ones came; and then
she so seldom had visitors. The other ducks liked better to swim about
in the canals than to run up to sit down under a burdock, and cackle
with her.

At last one egg-shell after another burst open. "Piep! piep!" it cried,
and in all the eggs there were little creatures that stuck out their
heads.

"Rap! rap!" they said; and they all came rapping out as fast as they
could, looking all round them under the green leaves; and the mother let
them look as much as they chose, for green is good for the eyes.

"How wide the world is!" said the young ones, for they certainly had
much more room now than when they were in the eggs.

"Do you think this is all the world?" asked the mother. "That extends
far across the other side of the garden, quite into the parson's field,
but I have never been there yet. I hope you are all together," she
continued, and stood up. "No, I have not all. The largest egg still lies
there. How long is this to last? I am really tired of it." And she sat
down again.

"Well, how goes it?" asked an old Duck who had come to pay her a visit.

"It lasts a long time with that one egg," said the Duck who sat there.
"It will not burst. Now, only look at the others;