“How wide the world is!” said all the young ones; for they certainly had much more room now than when they were inside the eggs.

“D’ye think this is all the world?” said the mother.  “That stretches far across the other side of the garden, quite into the parson’s field; but I have never been there yet.  I hope you are all together,” and she stood up.  “No, I have not all.  The largest egg still lies there.  How long is that to last?  I am really tired of it.”  And so she sat down again.

“Well, how goes it?” asked an old Duck who had come to pay her a visit.

“It lasts a long time with this one egg,” said the Duck who sat there.  “It will not open.  Now, only look at the others!  They are the prettiest little ducks I ever saw.  They are all like their father:  the rogue, he never comes to see me.”

“Let me see the egg which will not burst,” said the old Duck.  “You may be sure it is a turkey’s egg.  I was once cheated in that way, and had much care and trouble with the young ones, for they are afraid of the water.  Must I say it to you?  I could not make them go in.  I quacked, and I clacked, but it was no use.  Let me see the egg.  Yes, that’s a turkey’s egg.  Let it lie there, and do you teach the other children to swim.”

“I think I will sit on it a little longer,” said the Duck.  “I’ve sat so long now that I can sit a few days more.”

“Just as you please,” said the old Duck; and she went away.

At last the great egg burst.  “Pip! pip!” said the little one, and crept forth.  He was so big and ugly.  The Duck looked at him.

“It’s a very large Duckling,” said she.  “None of the others looks like that:  it really must be a turkey chick!  Well, we shall soon find out.  Into the water shall he go, even if I have to push him in.”

II—­HOW THE DUCKLING WAS TREATED AT HOME

The next day it was bright, beautiful weather; the sun shone on all the green burdocks.  The Mother-Duck, with all her family, went down to the canal.  Splash! she jumped into the water.  “Quack! quack!” she said, and one duckling after another plumped in.  The water closed over their heads, but they came up in an instant, and swam off finely; their legs went of themselves, and they were all in the water; even the ugly gray Duckling swam with them.

“No, it’s not a turkey,” said she:  “look how well he uses his legs, how straight he holds himself.  It is my own child!  On the whole he’s quite pretty, when one looks at him rightly.  Quack! quack! come now with me, and I’ll lead you out into the world, and present you in the duck-yard; but keep close to me all the time, so that no one may tread on you, and look out for the cats.”

And so they came into the duck-yard.  There was a terrible row going on in there, for two families were fighting about an eel’s head, and so the cat got it.