The Ugly Duckling (Teaching Narrative)

One summer afternoon, a mother duck sat quietly on her nest. In the nest were five beautiful eggs. She sat patiently, waiting for the five eggs to hatch and produce five little ducklings. The father duck was also waiting. He marched up and down beside the nest wondering why it took so long for eggs to hatch.

At lats th mother duck quacked for joy: the eggs were rocking backwards and forwards. She jumped from the nest and stood waiting there with the father duck. They watched anxiously as one by one the eggs cracked open and out tumbled four tiny yellow ducklings. They had bright little eyes and pretty little beaks and tried to stand on their wobbly little legs.

The mother and father kept watching the nest, for the fifth and largest egg had not yet hatched. But soon two little feet broke through the shell and then a head popped out of the top.

It was a big white, fuzzy head instead of a small yellow, downy one. The duckling wiggled out of the shell and said, “honk, honk, honk!”

“That certainly is a funny looking duckling,” said the father duck. “And why does he say honk, honk, honk, when the others say quack, quack, quak?”The four little yellow ducklings gathered around the big white on and quaked, “He’s not like us, he’s ugly!” Then they went with their mother down to the pond and left him all alone.

The poor ugly duckling couldn’t understand why nobody liked him. He also went down to the pond and sat there all by himself. Tears filled his eyes, rolled down his beak, and splashed into the water. As he looked into the water a strange and ugly face looked back at him. He didn’t understand that his tears caused ripples on the wateer, making his reflection look very odd. “No wonder they don’t like me,” he thought sadly, “if that’s the way I look”

He went deep into the woods to hide. Then through the gloom, he heard some cheerful, chirping sounds. He had found a nest of baby marsh birds. He hopped into the warm nest and tried to join in their singing. “Honk. Honk. Honk.” “You’re out of tune.” Said the birds, “your mother should give you singing lessons.” “My mother doesn’t like me,” said the ugly duckling.

Then the mother marsh bird appeared at the nest with a large worm in her beak. Beforee she could give it to her babies, the ugly duckling reached up and ate it. The mother marsh bird was furious and chaseed the ugly duckling out of the nest. “Go away and don’t come back, you ugly thing,” she said.

The ugly duckling ran as fast as he could back to the pond and swam far out into the water. When he looked around he saw a beautiful duck with a red head and blue wings. This duck didn’t tell him to go away, in fact, it seemed to be smiling at him. The ugly duckling was so happy. He climbed onto the duck’s back and jumped into the water.

What he didn’t know was that this was a wooden duck used as a decoy by hunters to attract other real ducks. At last, he thought, he had found a friend. He climbed back onto the duck and this time dived off its beak high up into the air. splash! He hit the water and went right down to the bottom of the pond. As he come to the surface he hit his head on the wooden duck.

He sank slowly to the murky bottom of the pond and fought weakly to pull himself out of the water.  “Every-body hates me,” he thought, “just because I’m ugly” He managed to clim onto a floating long and drifted along in the sun. He was feeling very sorry for himself and began to cry.

Honk, honk, honk! “What’s that?” he wondered. Honk, honk, honk. He rubbed the tears away from his eyes. There in the water were four white, fuzzy creatures that looked just like him. “Come on in and play with us,” they said. “It’s too nice a day to be crying.” The ugly duckling dried his tears and dived off the log. They played all sorts of games and he was having wonderfull time.

Then he looked up and saw the most beautiful white bird he had ever seen. She was the most beautiful bird in the world! “Mother, Mother,” his new frieds cried, “we’ve found a little brother: can he stay with us forever?”

“Of course he can,” said the beautiful swan in a gentle voice. She folded her white wing around the ugly duckling and explained, “You’re not a duckling at all” “You are a little swan,” she said, “and someday you will be the king of the pond”

By: E. Sumaryati adapted from many resources