The "fearless warrior" of the poem is a very small child whose pants keep falling down. He tries to shoot a grasshopper with his arrow, but the grasshopper spits in his eye. He tries to shoot a bunny rabbit, but the rabbit is too cute and pathetic. He tracks a bear, and runs after its cub and right into the mother. But the rest of the animals, thankful for him saving the rabbit, come to his rescue.

An outcast duckling's search for a family to accept him leads to constant rejection before learning his true identity as a swan.