SCENE III
TIME: the next spring.
PLACE: the brook on the Moor Farm.
| THE UGLY DUCKLING. | THE MOTHER. |
| THE MOLE. | THE CHILDREN. |
| THE FATHER. | THE SWANS. |
[The UGLY DUCKLING sits on the hill of a MOLE near the brook which winds through the Moor Farm.]
MOLE (from the mole hill). Will you please move? I wish to come out.
DUCKLING (rising quickly). Why, 't is a mole hill I've been sitting on!
(The Mole comes out from the hill.)
I'm sorry, friend Mole, I didn't notice your hill.
MOLE. Who are you?
DUCKLING. Madam Duck of this farm is my mother.
MOLE. That can't be! You are no duck.
DUCKLING. Yes, but I am. Only, I am uglier than any duck in the world.
MOLE. You have not the voice of a duck. You do not speak with the quack of which they are so proud. And then, if you are truly a duck, why are you not with your family?
DUCKLING. They drove me out last summer because I was ugly and could not quack.
MOLE. Then why have you come back?
DUCKLING. To let the swans kill me.
MOLE. What! To let them kill you?
DUCKLING. I would rather be killed by those beautiful birds than pecked by the hens, beaten by the geese, or starved with hunger in the winter.
MOLE. Perhaps you are not so ugly now as you were then.
DUCKLING. I have not looked at myself in the water since spring came and took the ice away. But I know well enough how dark and badly formed I am. The swans will kill me if I dare to approach them.
[A noise is heard in the distance.]
MOLE. They are coming! Go, while there is yet time.
DUCKLING. There is no place to go to. All winter long I was driven from moor to moor. I could not make a friend—I no longer wish to live.
[The SWANS are seen swimming down the brook.]
MOLE. They are here! Do not go to them, I pray you!
DUCKLING (shaking head). Farewell!
[He flies to the water and swims toward the Swans. They see him and rush to meet him with outstretched wings.]
DUCKLING. Kill me! Kill me!
FIRST SWAN. Kill you! Why, we have come to welcome you, beautiful stranger.
SECOND SWAN. We saw you from afar, and came to meet you.
THIRD SWAN. We are so happy to have you with us!
[Enter several CHILDREN.]
FIRST CHILD. See, there is a new swan!
SECOND CHILD (calling). Father, mother, come! There is another swan!
[Enter the FATHER and MOTHER.]
FATHER. What were you calling?
THIRD CHILD. A new swan has come! Look!
MOTHER. I see him! He is beautiful!
FATHER. He is very young, but he is the most beautiful of all!
FOURTH CHILD. See how the others stroke him with their beaks!
MOTHER. They are showing him how glad they are to have him with them. See how they swim around him and how gently they touch him!
FATHER. I have never seen anything so pretty. How happy the new swan is! See how he rustles his feathers! See how proudly he curves his slender neck!
FIRST CHILD. And see how he looks at himself in the water!
SECOND CHILD. Let's get bread and cake for him!
THIRD CHILD. Yes, yes!
FOURTH CHILD. Yes, yes!
[The Children run off, followed by the Father and Mother.]
MOLE (going into his hill). 'T was not so bad after all—not to have the family quack!