The Ugly Duckling (original)

The Ugly Duckling is the titular protagonist from the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale of the same name. His own family of ducklings reject him because he looks different. The moral of the story is sometimes true beauty will appear sooner in time.

History
The Ugly Duckling was rejected by his own family of ducklings because he looked different. He came to an old woman's house, but her cat and hen teased him mercilessly, so he ran away. He later saw a group of swans migrating, so he wanted to join them, but he couldn't because he could not fly since he was too young. Winter arrives, and a farmer finds and carries the freezing little duckling home, but the foundling is frightened by the farmer’s noisy children and flees the house. He spends a miserable winter alone in the outdoors, mostly hiding in a cave on the lake that partly freezes over. When spring arrives a flock of swans descends on the now thawing lake. The Ugly Duckling, now fully grown and matured, decides to throw himself at the flock of swans deciding that it is better to be killed by such beautiful birds than to live a life of ugliness and misery. He is shocked when the swans welcome and accept him, only to realize by looking at his reflection in the water that he has grown into one of them. The flock take flight to the air, and the now beautiful swan spreads his gorgeous large wings and takes flight with the rest of his new kind family.