The story of the Swan

The Swan is a short story about Ernie and his friend Raymond who like to bully Peter Watson. Ernie gets a rifle for his fifteenth birthday. His dad tells him to go kill some rabbits for supper. Ernie agrees, goes outside, and whistles for his friend Raymond to come outside. Raymond comes and they both shoot birds while heading to the rabbit field. When they get to the railway line they see Peter Watson, a boy whom they often bully. As a joke, Ernie and Raymond go over to Peter and point the gun at him and say, “Hands up!” Then, Raymond decides to tie Peter up on the railway tracks. Miraculously, Peter survives when the train comes over him by sinking into the ballast just barely enough so the train won’t hit him. Next, the two boys decide to throw Peter in the lake with his hands still tied. When they get to the lake, Ernie spots a duck on the lake and decides to shoot it instead. After he kills it, he orders Peter to go and fetch it. Peter does this unwillingly because he didn’t like to see Ernie shoot the beautiful duck, but he also doesn’t want to aggravate him. Next, Ernie sees a beautiful swan that is sitting on her nest and decides to shoot her also. Peter begs and pleads with him not to shoot the swan, but Ernie shoots the swan anyway. He tells Peter to go retrieve the swan. Peter hesitates for little bit and then goes with tears streaming down his face. He wishes that the swan could come back to life. This gives Ernie another idea. Ernie says he can bring the swan back to life, and he gets to work. He cuts off both of the swan’s wings, then ties the wings to Peter’s arms and says, “Look, I have brought the swan back to life!” Then, Ernie wants to see Peter or “Mister Swan” climb the tree and jump off and fly. Peter thinks that if he climbs the tree then he can get further away from Ernie and Raymond. He climbs the tree all the way to the top and just stands on a branch. Ernie yells at him to jump off the branch, but Peter just stands there. Ernie gives him ten seconds to jump off the tree or he will shoot him. Ten seconds go by and Ernie’s second shot hits Peter in the thigh. Peter falls off the branch, but grabs onto another one. Then, Peter sees a bright light and jumps off the branch. Three people saw a great white swan flying over the village that day. Mrs. Watson sees a white thing flop into her garden and she recognizes it as her son, Peter. She sprints out to him, calls a doctor and an ambulance, and cuts the two great wings of the swan off his arm.