He did not know what the birds were,or whither they flew,but all the same he was more drawn towards them than he had ever been by any creatures before
He did not envy them in the least
How could it occur to him even to wish to be such a marvel of beauty
He would have been thankful if only the ducks would have tolerated him among them
the poor ugly creature
The winter was so bitterly cold that the duckling was obliged to swim about in the water to keep it from freezing over,but every night the hole in which he swam got smaller and smaller
Then it froze so hard that the surface ice cracked,and the duckling had to use his legs all the time so that the ice should not freeze around him
At last he was so weary that he could move no more,and he was frozen fast into the ice