Hello. I'm Heidi from Little Angel Theatre, and I'm going to be reading 'The Ugly Duckling'.
It was lovely summer weather in the country
and the golden corn, the green oats and the hay stacks piled up in the meadows looked beautiful.
In a sunny spot stood an old farmhouse by a deep river.
On the riverbank sat a duck on her nest waiting for her young brood to hatch.
She was beginning to get tired of the task for the little ones were a long time in coming out of their shells.
Eventually one shell cracked, and then another, and then another, and then another.
And from each egg came a living creature that lifted its head and cried "peep peep!"
"Quack quack" said the mother and they all quacked as well as they could.
"How large the world is" said the young ducks
because now they had so much more room than while they were inside the shell.
"Are you all out?" wondered mother duck, rising off her nest.
"Oh no, the largest egg has still not hatched.
I wonder how long this is going to take. I'm quite tired of sitting here doing nothing."
And she seated herself again on the nest.
At last a large crack appeared in the last egg,
and a young one appeared "peep peep!"
It was very large and quite ugly.
Mother duck exclaimed "you are very large and not at all like the others.
But because she was mother duck she gave it no more thought.
On the next day the weather was delightful and the sun shone brightly.
Mother duck took her young brews down to the water for their first swimming lesson.
"Quack quack" she cried, and one after another the little ducklings jumped in.
they swam about with their little legs paddling underneath them
and the ugly duckling did just the same.
"Quack quack" said mother duck, "I must show you all around the farm,
but stay close by my side and above all beware of the cat."
When they reached the farmyard the other animals stopped and stared.
He's too big" they all said, "his neck's too long, he's too grey".
The little duckling felt quite miserable. He felt so ugly and was laughed at by the whole farmyard.
And so it went on, from day to day, until it got worse and worse.
And so at last he ran away.
Eventually he came upon a large pond where the wild ducks lived.
He was so tired, and so sad, he fell asleep.
In the morning, when the wild ducks rose into the air, they stared at the little duck.
"What sort of duck are you?" they asked, coming round to look at him
He didn't look the same as any of them. And off they flew.
Poor little duckling, there was nowhere he could call home.
Autumn came and the leaves in the forest turned to orange and gold.
One evening, just as the sun set amid radiant clouds,
there came a large flock of beautiful birds out of the bushes.
The duckling had never seen anything like them before.
The feathers were dazzling white and they curved their graceful necks.
They spread their glorious wings and flew away from the coming winter to warmer countries across the sea.
He didn't know the names of these birds but he had a longing to be just like them.
The winter grew colder and colder and he felt so alone. Poor Ugly Ducking.
Months passed and eventually he felt the warm sun shining and heard the lark singing.
And saw that all around was beautiful spring the
The young bird felt that his wings were strong and he flapped them against his sides and rose high up into the air.
Everything looked beautiful in the freshness of early spring.
Down below came three of the beautiful birds he had seen before,
with curved necks and white feathers.
They swam lightly over the smooth water gently rustling their feathers.
The little duckling remembered the birds from the autumn, and he flew down beside them.
But suddenly he remembered
"They won't want to talk to me, they won't want to be with me because I am still so ugly."
And he hung his head low to the water.
But what he did see in the clear stream below? Not a grey ugly bird
But dazzling white feathers and a long curved neck.
It was then he realised he was not a duck at all, but a beautiful swan.
The other swans swam around him and stroked his neck with their beaks to welcome him.
He rustled his feathers, curved his slender neck and cried joyfully.
"I never dreamed of such happiness as this while I was an ugly duckling."