The Lonely Duckling

Once upon a time,on a farm far away,there lived a family of
Barbary ducks.There was nothing spectacular or different
about this family of ducks except perhaps they were more
dilligent about their tasks and very hard-working,com-
pared to other families of ducks on that farm.

Even less unusual and remarkable was the second youngest
member of the Barbary family until one day he met and
fell in love with the prettiest Mallard he had ever seen.He
began to swim with the flock of Mallard whenever they
landed on his pond.He listened in awe as they related tales
to each other of the strange and exotic places they had been,
what they had seen and who they had met.Above all,he
loved the beautiful greeny-blue,grey and white plumage
of the male Mallards and longed to become one himself.

"How can I compete with such beauty ?, Why would she
ever love me ?, he used to cry to himself.

The years passed by and he saw his beloved Mallard come
and go but at least she had not mated-up with another,yet.
He saw all the changes at the farm,saw his beloved parents
pass away too,

"Is that all thats in store for me ?,a sad and lonely life with
nobody to love.To die in this miserable shithole and never
see the world ?"

The more he considered this,the more depressed he became,
and he stopped going to the pond altogether so as not to
torment himself with that which he could never have.He
became so withdrawn that the other animals began to
worry about his health and brought the matter to the att-
ention of the Queen of the farm-yard,the mother goose.
When she heard of his dilemma,she summoned him and
chided him gently,

"You silly little Barbary,all you have to do is to ask your
siblings for a few of their feathers,then you'll have enough
feathers to fly and you'll be as handsome as any Mallard."

"Do you think so ?,do you think they'll give them to me ?"

"Of course they will,They're your family and they love
you,they want to see you happy.",she told him.

So he asked each and every member of his family and they
all agreed to give him some of their feathers.

"You're all so good,thank you so much."

"Not a problem,sure we don't need them.",they all replied.

But unknown to the lonely duck,his family met in secret to
discuss the situation and began to have misgivings about the
whole deal.

"If I give him 6 feathers,why then he'll have 36 feathers more
than me."

"And me."

"And me,why should I do that ?"

"It wouldn't be fair."

"It wouldn't be right."

"He would have too many feathers,far more than us."

When he went to collect the promised feathers,each member
of his family had an excuse not to give any over.

"I've just done a count and I need all my feathers."

"I might need them in the future."

"Actually,I havn't enough feathers,can you give me some of
yours ? "

The lonely duckling was so disappointed that he didn't ask the
rest and went to his nest.His love,in the meantime,heard about
the efforts he had made and about him being let down by his
family and decided there and then to stay with the unfortunate
Barbary on the farm pond.

Next morning she went to tell him the news and express her love
but she found him lying on his back,cold as ice.

The poor lonely duck died of a broken heart,unable to bear the
disappointment and loss of all his dreams.