It was a glorious summer day in the country. The cornfields were golden and the hay stood neatly stacked in the meadow. Life was seemingly perfect, the community of geese which lived in the country spent their time fluffing their feathers, perfuming their nests and polishing their eggs. From a distance everything glowed with beauty, but from close by you could see that the feed bins were empty, the storage compartments were bare to the bone and the local school was empty while the beauty, modeling schools were full.

A mother goose lay on her nest in the deserted area near an old farm, waiting for her eggs to hatch. The time passed very slowly, especially since no one came to visit her. As she was polishing her eggs, they began to crack open and one by one the chicks came blinking into the sunlight.

"Cheep, cheep," they cried. "How big the world is!"

"The world is far bigger than this," said their mother. "It stretches right across the canal and beyond the next field, though I have never been there. Now, are you all here?" she continued. Then she noticed that one egg, the largest of all, lay still unopened in the nest. With a sigh, she resumed her seat, wondering to herself how much longer it would be before the egg hatches.

"Well g'day, how's it going?" asked an old goose who had come to pay her a visit.

"This large egg just won't hatch. Aren't the others the prettiest darlings you ever saw?"

"Let me see the egg that won't hatch," came the reply. ".....Heavens! It looks like a turkeys egg. Don't waste your time on that one, dear. It will only bring you trouble and believe me, it will never be smart enough to finish school or even pretty enough to model. Just teach the other children and leave that one alone. That's what I'd do".

"Oh, one more day won't hurt me. I think I'll sit it out," said the resolute mother.

"Well, you know best I'm sure," said the old goose shaking her head in disappointment At last, the big egg burst open and out crept a very large, very doped looking chick. The mother goose was worried, "Can it really be mine?" she wondered. "We'll find out for sure soon enough," was her own reply.

The next day she took all her chicks down to the water and jumped in. They all followed, one by one, including the fat, odd chick. "That's all right then, now I know its my own," said the mother to herself. She then led the chicks into the farmyard to enroll them into a school, reminding them on the way to keep their toes turned out and look beautiful as well as respectful.

But, "Oh no, not newcomers," was the cry of the principal. The principal caught sight of the poor, fat chick and flew into a disgusted rage. "It's too big and ugly to be enrolled at MY school," said the principal.

"That's discrimination!" cried the mother.

"Such a shame. The others are so pretty and smart looking," remarked the principal.

"This one may not be what you call a beautiful goose, but it is very well-behaved and is the most eager to learn of them all. Beauty is not everything!!" said the proud mother stoutly. But the fat, odd looking goose became the laughing stock of the school. She was jeered at and pecked by the chickens as well as other geese.

Over the next few months things went from bad to worse. The teachers gave her a hard time as she tried to fit in with the crowd and even her brothers and sisters turned against her and wished she would go away. The young goose was very miserable. Nobody wanted her in the same class as them and no matter how hard she tried to ignore all the teasing and beating she received from the immature geese, the painful feeling of being an outcast did not go away.

One day while she was on her way home, two wild geese's flew by, making fun of the poor outcast as they passed. "That's because I am fat and ugly," thought the sad goose as she entered her room.

As night fell, the din ceased, so, gathering her courage, the little goose rose and fled through the fields and meadows. She was running away to another state where she wouldn't be hated or mistreated by society, including her family.

For three weeks she journeyed, from school to school trying to enroll into a high school. The goose was determined to continue her education and become a farm manager.

It wasn't until autumn, that she was accepted at a high school in the middle of the city. One evening while out walking amongst the falling leaves, the goose saw a group of lovely white birds with long necks flying above her. She turned round and round and watched them, a strange feeling growing inside her. She admired their beauty and wished she was like them. Nonetheless, she questioned their intelligence, they seemed so uneducated and childish.

Ten years past by, the young goose traveled long and far studying and furthering her education. Now, she was the most famous expert in farm management in the entire country and everyone respected her and longed for her assistance. One day while at work the goose received a telegram from geese villagers who were in need of her expert help. After reading the address, she realized that it was from her village, the farm was on the verge of destruction.

Without hesitation the goose packed her bags and returned to her home village. At her arrival all the villagers welcomed her, not realizing who she really was. The geese she grew up with had grown to be very ugly and extremely thin as they lacked nutrients in their diet. The last ten years she had been away studying the other geese were busy polishing their eggs and fluffing their feathers. No one had paid any attention to gathering seeds for the harsh winter or planting new crops for the coming seasons. The sight of everything sparked anger inside of her and as a result she began to cry and shout all at once. Everyone gathered around her as if waiting to hear her words. The goose swallowed her tears and began to give a speech. "As a young chick I witnessed all of you caring about nothing but the physical appearance of yourselves and your belongings. All of you hated me because of my displeasing appearance and I was forced to abandon my own home as a result of your ignorance. Now, after so many years I've returned home, not to start a war, but to bring peace and to try and teach you how to improve this situation and preserve the farm which you live on."

Everyone was completely silent and in shock. Her brothers and sisters had their heads lowered to the ground, ashamed of their behavior towards their own sister in the early years. Her mother was behind the large crowd, she had listened to every word. With great difficulty (as a result of her old age) the mother approached her famous child and stood proudly beside her. "We have been selfish all our lives, caring the least about our health, the welfare of our children and the education of future generations about farm maintenance. We have spent too much time worrying about just how beautiful each one of us was on the surface. We polished our feed barns from the outside, but they were empty on the inside and the termites had destroyed them. Don't you realize, we need to change. Real beauty lies underneath these surfaces!"

With these words everyone lowered their head feeling ashamed and they recognized that not only their feed barns were empty on the inside, they were empty too.