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 of a hill . He thought he would fly towards it and see what it was . Oh , how glorious it felt to be rushing through the air , wheeling first one way and then the other ! He had never thought that flying could be like that ! The duckling was almost sorry when he drew near the pink cloud and found it was made up of apple blossoms growing beside a cottage whose garden ran down to the banks of the canal . He fluttered slowly to the ground and paused for a few minutes under a thicket of syringas , and while he was gazing about him , there walked slowly past a flock of the same beautiful birds he had seen so many months ago . Fascinated , he watched them one by one step into the canal , and float quietly upon the waters as if they were part of them . '
I will follow them , ' said the duckling to himself ; ` ugly though I am , I would rather be killed XXXXX them than suffer all I have suffered from cold and hunger , and from the ducks and fowls who should have treated me kindly . '
after before by from into like of to under upon