rose like clouds in among the dark trees, and hung over the water; and
the hunting dogs came--splash, splash!--into the mud, and the rushes and
reeds bent down on every side. That was a fright for the poor Duckling!
He turned his head to put it under his wing; and at that very moment a
frightful great dog stood close by the Duckling. His tongue hung far out
of his mouth, and his eyes glared horribly. He put his nose close to the
Duckling, showed his sharp teeth, and--splash, splash!--on he went
without seizing it.

"Oh, Heaven be thanked!" sighed the Duckling. "I am so ugly that even
the dog does not like to bite me!"

And so he lay quite quiet, while the shots rattled through the reeds and
gun after gun was fired. At last, late in the day, all was still: but
the poor little thing did not dare to rise up; he waited several hours
still before he looked around, and then hurried away out of the moor as
fast as he could. He ran on over field and meadow; there was a storm, so
that he had hard work to get away.


IV--IN THE PEASANT'S HUT


Towards evening the Duckling came to a peasant's poor little hut: it was
so tumbled down that it did not itself know on which side it should
fall; and that's why it stood up. The storm whistled around the Duckling
in such a way that he had to sit down to keep from blowing away; and the
wind blew worse and worse. Then he noticed that one of the hinges of the
door had given way, and the door hung so slanting that he could slip
through the crack into the room; and that is what he did.