ful of all; he is so young and pretty."
And the old swans bowed their heads before him.

Then he felt quite ashamed, and hid his head under his wing; for
he did not know what to do, he was so happy, and yet not at all proud.
He had been persecuted and despised for his ugliness, and now he heard
them say he was the most beautiful of all the birds. Even the
elder-tree bent down its bows into the water before him, and the sun
shone warm and bright. Then he rustled his feathers, curved his
slender neck, and cried joyfully, from the depths of his heart, "I
never dreamed of such happiness as this, while I was an ugly
duckling."

UNDER THE WILLOW-TREE

The region round the little town of Kjoge is very bleak and
cold. The town lies on the sea shore, which is always beautiful; but
here it might be more beautiful than it is, for on every side the
fields are flat, and it is a long way to the forest. But when
persons reside in a place and get used to it, they can always find
something beautiful in it,--something for which they long, even in the
most charming spot in the world which is not home. It must be owned
that there are in the outskirts of the town some humble gardens on the
banks of a little stream that runs on towards the sea, and in summer
these gardens look very pretty. Such indeed was the opinion of two
little children, whose parents were neighbors, and who played in these
gardens, and forced their way from one garden to the other through the
gooseberry-bushes that divided them. In one of the gardens grew an
elder-tree, and in the other an old willow, under which the children
were very fond of playing. They had permission to do so, although
the tree stood close by the stream, and they might easily have
fallen into the water; but the eye of God watches over the little
ones, otherwise they would never be safe. At the same time, these
children were very careful not to go too near the water; indeed, the
boy was so afraid of it, that in the summer, while the other
children were splashing about in the sea, nothing could entice him
to join them. They jeered and laughed at him, and he was obliged to
bear it all as patiently as he could. Once the neighbor's little girl,
Joanna, dreamed that she was sailing in a boat, and the boy--Knud
was his name--waded out in the water to join her, and the water came
up to his neck, and at last closed over his head, and in a moment he
had disappeared. When little Knud heard this dream