Next morning they perceived the little stranger, when the tom-cat began to purr and the hen to cluck. "What's that?" said the woman, looking round. Not seeing very distinctly, she mistook the duckling for a fat duck that had lost its way. "Why, this is quite a prize!" added she; "I can now get duck's eggs, unless indeed it be a male! we must wait a bit and see." So the duckling was kept on trial for three weeks, but no eggs were forthcoming. The tom-cat and the hen were the master and mistress of the house, and always said "We and the world"--for they fancied themselves to be the half, and by far the best half too, of the whole universe. The duckling thought there might be two opinions on this point; but the hen would not admit of any such doubts. "Can you lay eggs?" asked she. "No." "Then have the goodness to hold your tongue." And the tom-cat inquired: "Can you raise your back, or purr, or throw out sparks?" "No." "Then you have no business to have any opinion at all, when rational people are talking." The duckling sat in a corner very much out of spirits, when in came the fresh air and the sunshine, which gave him such a strange longing to swim on the water, that he could not help saying so to the hen. "What's this whim?" said she. "That comes of being idle. If you could either lay eggs or purr, you would not indulge in such fancies." "But it is so delightful to swim about on the water!" observed the duckling, "and to feel it close over one's head when one dives down to the bottom." "A great pleasure, indeed!" quoth the hen. "You must be crazy, surely! Only ask the cat--for he is the wisest creature I know--how he would like to swim on the water, or to dive under it. To say nothing of myself, just ask our old mistress, who is wiser than anybody in the world, whether she'd relish swimming and feeling the waters close above her head." "You can't understand me!" said the duckling. "We can't understand you? I should like to know who could. You don't suppose you are wiser than the tom-cat and our mistress--to say nothing of myself? Don't take these idle fancies into your head, child; but thank Heaven for all the kindness that has been shown you. Have you not found a warm room, and company that might improve you? But you are a mere chatterbox, and there's no pleasant intercourse to be had with you. And you may take my word for it, for I mean you well. I say disagreeable things, which is a mark of true friendship. Now, look to it, and mind that you either lay eggs, or learn to purr and emit sparks." "I think I'll take my chance and go abroad into the wide world," said the duckling. "Do," said the hen. And the duckling went forth, and swam on the water, and dived beneath its surface; but he was slighted by all other animals, on account of his ugliness.