The ugly boy

The ugly boy

Once upon a time a lady sat under a tree, giving birth to a child. It was stormy weather, the black clouds chased each other over the sky, the rain hammered on the ground. Just as the lady put her new born son in a basket, lightning hit the tree they were sitting under and burned the boy's face.

Luckily the boy survived. But the lightning had made his face so ugly that only his mother could look at it without disgust. She built a house of boards and gave him food from her breasts and protected him from other human beings. The ugly boy had never seen his own reflection when for the first time he discovered other children in the woods.

He ran towards them with open arms shouting: "Hi, do you want to be my playmates?" But the children trembled when they saw him. "Ugh, how ugly you are," he heard a girl exclaim before they ran away. The ugly boy went home crying and told his mother what he had experienced.

She smiled bravely at him and picked up a mirror. "Look here," she said and held her breath. "Now you see why the other children ran away. But you shall know that nobody has such a fine father as you have." The ugly boy looked at the mirror and shiwered. "If I have such a fine father, why is he not here?" The mother looked at him and smiled. "He is out on a long journey," she said secretly.

But it didn't help the ugly boy that she said he had a fine father. Nobody wanted to play with him anyhow. Even the children's parents showed their disgust when they saw him. So the ugly boy's mother made a mask for him, to make him look like a prince.

The ugly boy wore the mask on his first day at school. He was afraid the other children would discover the mask, and held it tightly the first hour. But as soon as there was a break the kids pulled his mask off and shouted. "Ugh, look how ugly he is," until he started to cry.

When the school bell rang and the children entered the classroom, the teacher took the ugly boy on his lap and comforted him, while he was cross with the other children. "It's not his fault that he is ugly," the teacher explained. "Inside he is just like you. Think about how it feels to be teased as you tease him."

But do you think the children became any kinder? No, they didn't. And the next day the parents came and said to the teacher. "We don't want our attractive children to go in the same class as such an unbearably, ugly boy." "But he is just an ordinary boy burned by lightning when he was a baby," the teacher said. "You grown ups can't be so cruel towards an innocent little child?"

The teacher argued and begged, but the parents didn't give in. Finally the ugly boy had to be in a class all by himself. He had to come to school before the other children, have his breaks when the others were indoors and leave the school after everybody else.

Early one morning as the ugly boy came to school, the teacher had hoisted the flag in the school yard. "Our kind king has finally come home again," he said. "Go to your classroom now, before the others arrive." The ugly boy ran up the steps, into his classroom and sat down by the window. From his place he could se the king's ship by the wharf. A parade was on its way to the school, and down in the school yard a band played a welcoming tune.

When the king entered the school yard all the parents bowed, the children bowed and the teachers bowed "I have come to look for my child," the king said. Everyone was quiet when they heard this and looked carefully at each other. "Before I left, I met a woman in the forest. Together we made a child so that the country would have a prince or princess in case I shouldn't come back." "Who was this woman?" the teacher asked. "I don't know," the king replied shyly. "It was dark in the woods, and as soon as I had planted my seed in her, she ran away."

The teacher looked at all the children in the school yard, and all their mothers. "Ehm," he coughed not knowing what to say. "Have any of you mothers here met the king in the woods before he left?"

To both the king's and the teacher's surprise all the mothers said yes and the children cheered. Their fathers looked more thoughtful, but none of them protested. "Well, well," the king laughed. "I'll have to have a close look at all the children then." The teacher lined the kids up, and the king had a look at the first one while its mother spoke of how she had met him in the woods. "It was under an old oak tree," the mother said smilingly. "No," the king said. "I can clearly remember it was a pine." "Oh," the woman said and flushed. "You are right, now I remember it was a pine indeed." The king smiled at her. "I'm sorry, it wasn't me you met, and this is not my child."

The next child was a boy with blue eyes and fair hair. "It can't be you," the king said. "I have brown eyes and black hair." His mother started to argue. "Can't you remember that it was me you met under the pine that night?" The king shook his head and smiled. "It was no pine, madam. I only made that up to show that you are lying. Go and tell that to your husband, who is certainly this child's father. He doesn't look very happy."

The king sat in the school yard all day, disclosing one false prince and princess after another. When there were no more children to examine, somebody caught the eye of the ugly boy in the window. "Ugh, that's uglyface - get him away before the king sees him." The king looked up and saw the ugly boy half hidden behind the curtains. "Take him away, take him away," a mother shouted throwing a stone after him. Others also picked up stones from the school yard. The stones hit the window where the ugly boy was sitting, and soon it broke. "Stop it, stop it," the teacher shouted, but nobody listened to him.

The king saw with amazement how children and grown ups stormed the building to get at the ugly boy. And the teacher ran after them to try to stop them. When the school yard was empty, the ugly boy appeared at the broken window. The king saw he had blood on his face. Soon he understood what would happen.

With his arms open the king went closer to the wall, just under the broken window and shouted: "jump boy, jump." The ugly boy saw the angry parents and the children pouring into the classroom. He turned around, shut his eyes - and jumped."

The king caught him in his strong arms. And when he saw the boys brown eyes, he knew it was his son. "It's over now," the king whispered and carried him towards the palace.