It was a beautiful summer, the wheat was yellow, the oats were green, and the hay was dry. From the old ruined house which nobody lived in, down to the edge of the canal, was a forest of great burdocks. It was under these burdocks that a duck had built herself a warm nest, and was sitting all day on six pretty eggs. Five of them were white, but the sixth, which was larger than the others, was of an ugly grey colour. The duck was always puzzled about that egg, and how it came to be so different from the rest.
