It was lovely summer on the old farm. The wheat was golden, and the green woods circled a deep blue lake. In a quiet spot among the leaves, a duck sat on her nest. She had been sitting for a long time, and she was tired of waiting. At last the eggs began to crack, one after another. "Peep, peep," cried the little ducklings, and they pushed their heads out into the wide green world. "How big the world is!" they said. The mother looked at them all. "Are you all here?" she asked. But the largest egg still lay there, whole and silent. So she sat down again with a sigh. An old duck came to visit her. "That big egg will give you trouble," she said. "It looks like a turkey egg. Leave it, and teach the others to swim." But the mother would not leave it. "I have sat so long already," she said, "that I can sit a little longer." At last the big egg cracked too. "Peep, peep," said the young one, and tumbled out. He was very large and grey, and not at all pretty. The mother looked at him with surprise. "What a tall, ugly duckling!" she thought. "He is not like the others at all." The next day she led her family down to the water. Splash! She jumped in, and one by one the ducklings followed. Even the big grey one swam well, better than the rest. "He is my own child," she said, "and he is quite handsome." But in the farmyard things went badly. The other ducks stared and said, "Look at that one! We do not want him here." One duck flew at him and bit his neck. The hens pecked him, and the girl who fed the birds pushed him aside. Even his brothers and sisters were unkind. "You are too big and too strange," they said. Day after day it grew worse. So at last the poor duckling ran away. He scrambled over the fence, and the little birds in the bushes flew up in fear. "That is because I am so ugly," he thought sadly. And he ran on until he reached a wide marsh where the wild ducks lived.