The sun was setting one day , like a great scarlet globe , and the river , to the duckling 's vast bewilderment , was getting hard and slippery , when he heard a sound of whirring wings , and high up in the air a flock of swans were flying . They were as white as snow which had fallen during the night , and their long necks with yellow bills were stretched southwards , for they were going -- they did not quite know whither -- but to a land where the sun shone all day . Oh , if he only could have gone with them ! But that was not possible , of course ; and besides , what sort of companion could an ugly thing like him be to those beautiful beings ? So he walked sadly down to a sheltered pool and dived to the very bottom , and tried to think it was the greatest happiness he could dream of . But , all the same , he knew it was n't ! And every morning it grew colder and colder , and the duckling had hard work to keep himself warm . Indeed , it would be truer to say that he never was warm at all ; and at last , after one bitter night , his legs moved so slowly that the ice crept closer and closer , and when the morning light broke he was caught fast , as in a trap ; and soon his senses went from him . A few hours more and the poor duckling 's life had been ended . But , by good fortune , a man was crossing the river on his way to his work , and saw in a moment what had happened . He had on thick wooden shoes , and he went and stamped so hard on the ice that it broke , and then he picked up the duckling and tucked him under his sheepskin coat , where his frozen bones began to thaw a little . Instead of going on his work , the man turned back and took the bird to his children , who gave him a warm mess to eat and put him in a box by the fire , and when they came back from school he was much more comfortable than he had been since he had left the old woman 's cottage . They were kind little children , and wanted to play with him ; but , alas ! the poor fellow had never played in his life , and thought they wanted to tease him , and flew straight into the milk-pan , and then into the butter-dish , and from that into the meal-barrel , and at last , terrified at the noise and confusion , right out of the door , and hid himself in the snow amongst the bushes at the back of the house . He never could tell afterwards exactly how he had spent the rest of the winter . He only knew that he was very miserable and that he never had enough to eat . But by-and-by things grew better . The earth became softer , the sun hotter , the birds sang , and the flowers once more appeared in the grass . When he stood up , he felt different , somehow , from what he had done before he fell asleep among the reeds to which he had wandered after he had escaped from the peasant 's hut . His body seemed larger , and his wings stronger .
Something pink looked at him from the side XXXXX a hill .
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