` We are getting tired of this moor , ' they said , ` and to-morrow we think of trying another , where the lakes are larger and the feeding better . Will you come with us ? ' ` Is it nicer than this ? ' asked the duckling doubtfully . And the words were hardly out of his mouth , when ` Pif ! pah ! ' and the two new-comers were stretched dead beside him . At the sound of the gun the wild ducks in the rushes flew into the air , and for a few minutes the firing continued . Luckily for himself the duckling could not fly , and he floundered along through the water till he could hide himself amidst some tall ferns which grew in a hollow . But before he got there he met a huge creature on four legs , which he afterwards knew to be a dog , who stood and gazed at him with a long red tongue hanging out of his mouth . The duckling grew cold with terror , and tried to hide his head beneath his little wings ; but the dog snuffed at him and passed on , and he was able to reach his place of shelter . ' I am too ugly even for a dog to eat , ' said he to himself . ` Well , that is a great mercy . ' And he curled himself up in the soft grass till the shots died away in the distance . When all had been quiet for a long time , and there were only stars to see him , he crept out and looked about him . He would never go near a pool again , never , thought he ; and seeing that the moor stretched far away in the opposite direction from which he had come , he marched bravely on till he got to a small cottage , which seemed too tumbledown for the stones to hold together many hours longer . Even the door only hung upon one hinge , and as the only light in the room sprang from a tiny fire , the duckling edged himself cautiously in , and lay down under a chair close to the broken door , from which he could get out if necessary . But no one seemed to see him or smell him ; so he spend the rest of the night in peace . Now in the cottage dwelt an old woman , her cat , and a hen ; and it was really they , and not she , who were masters of the house . The old woman , who passed all her days in spinning yarn , which she sold at the nearest town , loved both the cat and the hen as her own children , and never contradicted them in any way ; so it was their grace , and not hers , that the duckling would have to gain .
It was only next morning , when it grew light , that they noticed their visitor , who stood trembling before them , with his eye XXXXX the door ready to escape at any moment .
At about beside from if into on so under with