Her husband woke up, shortly after his wife had kicked the bucket, and in shortly before finding the corpse, he spotted the dead cow. He rushed outside, got his gun, and killed himself.

The noise woke one of his sons, who quickly saw his dead mother, ran out of the house in horror, nearly tripping over his dead father, and ran past the dead cow, to the river to drown himself.

Sitting in the river was a mermaid. "I see all, and I know all", said the mermaid, who like all mythical creatures, talks a bit funny, "and I know why you've come to kill yourself. But, if you can make love to me five times in a row, I will restore your parents, and your cow."

The son does his best, but, obviously, the pressure to perform is rather great, and he only manages four times. The mermaid drowns him.

The next oldest son wakes up at about this time. Spies the corpses littering the farm, and again sees the bodies, and rushes to the river, to see his little brother floating downstream. The mermaid greets the brother in the same way, and says she will restore all the bodies if the brother makes love to her ten times in a row. The brother tries, but can only manage seven times. He is promptly drowned by the mermaid.

Finally, the oldest brother wakes up, again spots the terrible carnage, and rushes to the river, to kill himself. The mermaid says that she will bring everybody back to life if the eldest brother makes love to her fifteen times in a row. "Fifteen times in a row?" asks the brother in surprise. "Why only fifteen times? Why not twenty, or thirty?"

The mermaid blinks in surprise, but decides that if the eldest brother can do that, she'll make the family rich, as well as bringing them back to life.

"There's just one thing" says the brother, "how do I know that making love to you thirty times in a row won't kill you like it did the cow?"