OUR SPARROW.  Come, friends, ’t is for all of you!

VERY OLD SPARROW.  Do you know, stranger bird, that, with these crumbs, you have brought us in all one loaf?

[Our Sparrow drops the crust for the others.  At once it changes into INGE. The birds fly away frightened.]

INGE.  Ah!  Now I understand.  The loaf had to be made up, crumb by crumb.

[The WICKED ELF suddenly appears.]

WICKED ELF.  Come, pretty maid, come to the Elf Hill!

INGE.  No, no!  I will not!

WICKED ELF.  But we have such pretty things to tell you!

INGE.  I care not for your pretty things!  I go to fetch wood for my mother. 
I go to walk in the mud if need be.  Away with you!  I’ll have none of you! 
Away, away, I say!

THE UGLY DUCKLING

SCENE I

TIME:  one summer morning. 
PLACE:  the farmyard of the Moor Farm.

* * * * *

MADAM DUCK. 
FIRST DUCKLING. 
SECOND DUCKLING. 
THE UGLY DUCKLING. 
THIRD DUCKLING. 
TURKEY. 
GRAY GANDER. 
WHITE GOOSE. 
PLYMOUTH ROCK HEN. 
RED ROOSTER.

* * * * *

[MADAM DUCK enters the farmyard with her new brood of DUCKLINGS. The other fowls approach.]

TURKEY (showing displeasure).  A new brood of ducks!  Look you all—­a new brood of ducks!

GRAY GANDER (also displeased).  As if there were not enough of us here already!

WHITE GOOSE (likewise displeased).  True enough,—­I can scarce find a corner for my afternoon nap!

RED ROOSTER.  It seems to me, Madam Duck, that you should not have brought us a new brood this summer.

MADAM DUCK.  What is that you are saying?

TURKEY.  It seems to all of us, madam, that there is no room here for a new brood.

PLYMOUTH ROCK HEN.  Friends, be just.  Madam Duck has a perfect right to bring her ducklings here.  Besides, the children are quite pretty.

MADAM DUCK.  They are beautiful!  You shall all see that for yourselves.  Come, children, into a row with you!

[The Ducklings form themselves into a row.  The Ugly Duckling is last.]

MADAM DUCK.  Legs wide apart!  Toes out!  Now speak prettily to my old friends.

DUCKLINGS (all but the last).  Quack!  Quack!

MADAM DUCK.  There now—­are they not charming?

GRAY GANDER (looking down row).  Why, yes, they all seem graceful enough—­here—­wait a moment!  Does that last one there belong to you?

[All the fowls look at the last Duckling.]

MADAM DUCK.  Oh yes!  He is larger than the others and perhaps not so pretty, but—­

TURKEY (interrupting).  Make no excuses for him, madam.  We can see for ourselves what he is.