The Ugly Duckling with a sad ending.

One warm, fine spring day, four ducklings were hatched: three were the most beautiful ducklings to have ever existed, but the fourth was...well...not very beautiful to say the least; in fact, he was the ugliest duckling ever seen in the history of the pond. Because of this, no creature ever liked him; he was an outcast, shunned from society. However, every night, his parents would read him the story about "The Ugly Duckling", which inspired the little duckling to go on living, knowing that some day he would become a beautiful swan and would put all the other ducks to shame. One day, he swam by some children, and they took one look at him, and ran away screaming for their mommies saying, "There's an ugly sea monster in the pond with feathers of all colors, and it's out to get us!", but the little duckling just kept his head held up high because he knew that one day his mismatched and odd looking feathers would turn into perfect silky white plumes.

English: Vilhelm Pedersen illustration for "Ugly D...

Disney's 1931 version

Ugly Duckling fountain

He knew those children would come back to admire him and see that he had become one of the most beautiful swan ever known to man. The next day, he went swimming again and saw some frogs leaping frantically from lily pad to lily pad, so he went over to see what was going on. But right when he approached them, all the frogs quickly jumped up onto the shore and hid from him and he realized all this commotion was an attempt by the frogs to escape from him. The little ugly duckling called out to them, "Do you hate me just because of my lazy eye?", and the frogs replied in unison "Yes!!! We have never seen anything so ugly!". Another day, the ugly...