places where the
reeds grew. Here he lay down, but he was too tired and too frightened
to fall asleep, and with the earliest peep of the sun the reeds began
to rustle, and he saw that he had blundered into a colony of wild ducks.
But as he could not run away again he stood up and bowed politely.

'You are ugly,' said the wild ducks, when they had looked him well over;
'but, however, it is no business of ours, unless you wish to marry
one of our daughters, and that we should not allow.' And the duckling
answered that he had no idea of marrying anybody, and wanted nothing but
to be left alone after his long journey.

So for two whole days he lay quietly among the reeds, eating such food
as he could find, and drinking the water of the moorland pool, till he
felt himself quite strong again. He wished he might stay were he was for
ever, he was so comfortable and happy, away from everyone, with nobody
to bite him and tell him how ugly he was.

He was thinking these thoughts, when two young ganders caught sight of
him as they were having their evening splash among the reeds, looking
for their supper.

'We are getting tired of this moor,' they said, 'and to-morrow we think
of trying another, where the lakes are larger and the feeding better.
Will you come with us?'

'Is it nicer than this?' asked the duckling doubtfully. And the words
were hardly out of his mouth, when 'Pif! pah!' and the two new-comers
were stretched dead beside him.

At the sound of the gun the wild ducks in the rushes flew into the air,
and for a few minutes the firing continued.

Luckily for himself the duckling could not fly, and he floundered along
through the water till he could hide himself amidst some tall ferns
which grew in a hollow. But before he got there he met a huge creature
on four legs, which he afterwards knew to be a dog, who stood and gazed
at him with a long red tongue hanging out of his mouth. The duckling
grew cold with terror, and tried to hide his head beneath his little
wings; but the dog snuffed at him and passed on, and he was able to
reach his place of shelter.

'I am too ugly even for a dog to eat,' said he to himself. 'Well, that
is a great mercy.' And he curled himself up in the soft grass till the
shots died away in the distance.

When all had been quiet for a long time, and there were only stars to
see him, he crept out and looked about him.

He would never go near a pool again, never, thought he; and seeing that