ven be thanked!" sighed the Duckling. "I am so ugly that even
the dog does not like to bite me!"

And so it lay quite quiet, while the shots rattled through the reeds and
gun after gun was fired. At last, late in the day, silence was restored;
but the poor Duckling did not dare to rise up; it waited several hours
before it looked around, and then hastened away out of the moor as fast
as it could. It ran on over field and meadow; there was such a storm
raging that it was difficult to get from one place to another.

Toward evening the Duckling came to a miserable little hut. This hut was
so dilapidated that it did not know on which side it should fall; and
that's why it remained standing. The storm whistled round the Duckling
in such a way that the poor creature was obliged to sit down, to stand
against it; and the tempest grew worse and worse. Then the Duckling
noticed that one of the hinges of the door had given way, and the door
hung so slanting that the Duckling could slip through the crack into the
room.

Here lived a woman, with her Tom Cat and her Hen. And the Tom Cat, whom
she called Sonnie, could arch his back and purr, he could even give out
sparks; but for that one had to stroke his fur the wrong way. The Hen
had quite little short legs, and therefore she was called
Chickabiddy-shortshanks; she laid good eggs, and the woman loved her as
her own child.

In the morning the strange Duckling was at once noticed, and the Tom Cat
began to purr, and the Hen to cluck.

"What's this?" said the woman, looking all around; but she could not see
very well, and therefore she thought the Duckling was a fat duck that
had strayed. "This is a rare prize!" she said. "Now I shall have duck's
eggs. I hope it is not a drake. We must try that."

And so the Duckling was admitted on trial for three weeks; but no eggs
came. And the Tom Cat was master of the house, and the Hen was the lady,
and always said, "We and the world!" for she thought they were half the
world, and by far the better half. The Duckling thought one might have a
different opinion, but the Hen would not allow it.

"Can you lay eggs?" she asked.

"No."

"Then you'll have the goodness to hold your tongue."

And the Tom Cat said, "Can you curve your back, and purr and give out
sparks?"

"No."

"Then you cannot have any opinion of your own when sensible people are
speaking."

And the Duckling sat in the corner and was melancholy; then the fresh
air and t