The Pond

by Carl Ewald

She stared at the reed on which he had been sitting and up in the air and down at the water. Then she gave a frightful scream:

"Oh, poor forlorn widow that I am! What shall I do? What shall I do?"

He lay in the water, hit by a stray shot, dead, stiff.

'HE LAY IN THE WATER, HIT BY A STRAY SHOT'

"Children! Children! Your father is dead!"

The four looked at her in dismay, when she brought the news; the fifth stared vacantly and stupidly, as usual. The uproar continued, out in the pond. The six reed-warblers sat in a row on the edge and were at their wits' end what to do.

Then, gradually, it became quiet again.

The smoke of the powder lifted and the water calmed down. The men with the guns sat up above in the wood and ate their lunch; and the woman of the pond counted the money she had made.