the moor stretched far away in the opposite direction from which he had
come, he marched bravely on till he got to a small cottage, which seemed
too tumbledown for the stones to hold together many hours longer. Even
the door only hung upon one hinge, and as the only light in the room
sprang from a tiny fire, the duckling edged himself cautiously in, and
lay down under a chair close to the broken door, from which he could get
out if necessary. But no one seemed to see him or smell him; so he spend
the rest of the night in peace.

Now in the cottage dwelt an old woman, her cat, and a hen; and it was
really they, and not she, who were masters of the house. The old woman,
who passed all her days in spinning yarn, which she sold at the nearest
town, loved both the cat and the hen as her own children, and never
contradicted them in any way; so it was their grace, and not hers, that
the duckling would have to gain.

It was only next morning, when it grew light, that they noticed their
visitor, who stood trembling before them, with his eye on the door ready
to escape at any moment. They did not, however, appear very fierce, and
the duckling became less afraid as they approached him.

'Can you lay eggs?' asked the hen. And the duckling answered meekly:

'No; I don't know how.' Upon which the hen turned her back, and the cat
came forward.

'Can you ruffle your fur when you are angry, or purr when you are
pleased?' said she. And again the duckling had to admit that he could do
nothing but swim, which did not seem of much use to anybody.

So the cat and the hen went straight off to the old woman, who was still
in bed.

'Such a useless creature has taken refuge here,' they said. 'It calls
itself a duckling; but it can neither lay eggs nor purr! What had we
better do with it?'

'Keep it, to be sure!' replied the old woman briskly. 'It is all
nonsense about it not laying eggs. Anyway, we will let it stay here for
a bit, and see what happens.'

So the duckling remained for three weeks, and shared the food of the cat
and the hen; but nothing in the way of eggs happened at all. Then the
sun came out, and the air grew soft, and the duckling grew tired of
being in a hut, and wanted with all his might to have a swim. And one
morning he got so restless that even his friends noticed it.

'What is the matter?' asked the hen; and the duckling told her.

'I am so longing for the water again. You can't think how delicious it
is to pu