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presume to envy them; for how could it ever have entered his head to wish himself endowed with their loveliness? He would have been glad enough if the ducks had merely suffered him to remain among thempoor ugly animal that he was!

But it would be too painful to tell of all the privations and misery that the duckling endured during the hard winter. He was lying in a marsh, amongst the reeds, when the sun again began to shine. The larks were singing, and the spring had set in, in all its beauty.

The duckling now felt able to flap his wings; they rustled much louder than before, and bore him away most sturdily; and before he was well aware of it, he found himself in a large garden, where the apple-trees were in full blossom, and the fragrant elder was steeping its long, drooping branches in the waters of a winding canal. Oh, how beautiful everything looked in the first freshness of spring! Three magnificent white swans now emerged from the thicket before him; they flapped their wings, and then swam lightly on the surface of the water. The duckling recognised the beautiful creatures, and was impressed with feelings of melancholy peculiar to himself. 'I will fly towards those royal birds-and they will strike me dead for daring to approach them, so ugly as I am! But it matters not. Better to be killed by them, than to be pecked at by the ducks, beaten by the hens, pushed about by the girl that feeds the poultry, and to suffer want in the winter.' And he flew into the water, and swam towards these splendid swans, who rushed to meet him with rustling wings, the moment they saw him. 'Do but kill me!' said the poor animal, as he bent his head down to the surface of the water, and awaited his doom. But what did he see in the clear stream? Why,

his own image, which was no longer that of a heavylooking dark-gray bird, ugly and ill-favoured, but of a beautiful swan ! It matters not being born in a duckyard, when one is hatched from a swan's

egg !

He now rejoiced over all the misery and the straits he had endured, as it made him feel the full depth of the happiness that awaited him. And the large swans swam round him, and stroked him with their beaks.

6

Some little children came into the garden, and threw bread-crumbs and corn into the water; and the youngest cried There is a new one!' The other children were delighted too, and repeated: Yes, there is a new one just come!' And they clapped their hands, and capered about, and then flew to their father and mother, and more bread and cake were flung into the water; and all said: The new one is the prettiest. So young, and so lovely!' And the elder swans bowed

before him.

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He then felt quite ashamed, and hid his head under his wings. He did not himself know what to do. He was more than happy, yet none the prouder; for a good heart is never proud. He remembered how he had been pursued, and made game of; and now he heard everybody say he was the most beautiful of all beautiful birds. Even the elder-bush bent its boughs down to him in the water, and the sun appeared so warm, and so mild! He then flapped his wings, and raised his slender neck, as he cried, in the fulness of his heart: 'I never dreamed of such happiness while I was an ugly duckling!'

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It is an ancient Mariner,

And he stoppeth one of three;

'By thy long gray beard and glittering eye, Now wherefore stopp'st thou me?

2.

'The bridegroom's doors are opened wide,

And I am next of kin :

The guests are met, the feast is set:
Mayst hear the merry din.'

3.

He holds him with his glittering eye-
The wedding-guest stood still,
And listens like a three-years' child:
The Mariner hath his will.

4.

The wedding-guest sat on a stone:

He cannot choose but hear;

And thus spake on that ancient man,

The bright-eyed Mariner.

5.

'The ship was cheered, the harbour cleared,

Merrily did we drop

Below the kirk, below the hill,

Below the light-house top.

6.

'The sun came up upon the left,

Out of the sea came he;

And he shone bright, and on the right
Went down into the sea.

7.

"Higher and higher every day,

Till over the mast at noon

The wedding-guest here beat his breast,
For he heard the loud bassoon.

8.

The bride hath paced into the hall

Red as a rose is she;

Nodding their heads, before her goes
The merry minstrelsy.

9.

The wedding-guest he beat his breast,
Yet he cannot choose but hear!
And thus spake on that ancient man,
The bright-eyed Mariner.

10.

'And now the storm-blast came, and he Was tyrannous and strong;

He struck with his o'ertaking wings,

And chased us south along.

11.

With sloping masts and dipping prow,
As who pursued with yell and blow
Still treads the shadow of his foe,
And forward bends his head,

The ship drove fast, loud roared the blast,
And southward aye we fled.

12.

'And now there came both mist and snow,
And it grew wondrous cold;
And ice mast-high came floating by,
As green as emerald.

13.

'And through the drifts the snowy clifts
Did send a dismal sheen :

Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken-
The ice was all between.

14.

'The ice was here, the ice was there,

The ice was all around;

It cracked and growled, and roared and howled, Like noises in a swound!

15.

'At length did cross an albatross,
Thorough the fog it came;

As if it had been a Christian soul,
We hailed it in God's name.

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