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Max und Moritz — A Boys' Story in Seven Pranks by Wilhelm Busch
Second Prank
After good widow Bolte had recovered from her pain,
She thought by herself that it would probably be the best
To eat the deceased, who here below had to pass away so prematurely
In secret and in honour and well fried.
– Of course the grief was big when they were laying there, nude and bare,
plucked near the oven, they, who once in beautiful days
sometimes in the yard, sometimes in the garden, cheerfully scratched in the sand.
Oh, Mrs. Bolte is crying again, and the spitz is standing nearby.
Max and Moritz smelled this; “Quickly up onto the roof” they said by themselves.
Though the chimney with delight they see the chicken laying,
Which already without head and throat lovely roasted in the frying pan.
Just now widow Bolte goes in the cellar with a plate,
To get a portion of the sauerkraut
Which she likes in particular when it is reheated. –
– Meanwhile on the roof one is active in the matter.
Max has in aforethought brought a rod and line with him. –
Nippity-nip! And a chicken is already being pulled up!
Nippity-nip! Now number two; Nippity-nip! Now number three;
And now comes number four: Nippity-nip! Got you!! –
– Indeed, the spitz saw it very well, and he barked: Rawau! Rawau!
But now they already jauntily away and down from the roof. –
– Well! That will result in a rumpus, because Mrs. Bolte is just arriving;
She stopped dead in her tracks, when she saw the frying pan..
All the chickens were gone - “Spitz!!” - that was her first word. –
“Oh, you spitz, you monster!! – Just you wait! I'll get to him!!!”
With the ladle big and heavy, she comes over the spitz;
His wailing sounds loudly for he doesn't feel guilty. –
– Max und Moritz, in the hideaway, are snoring behind the hedge,
and from the entire chicken feast, there is nothing but a leg to see. –
This was the second prank, but the third one is soon to follow.