“Two Friends” is a short short story by Guy de Maupassant. I read it in Selected Short Stories, and I’m intending to read all the stories in the book. You can read the story for free from The University of Adelaide Library.
It tells of two old friends who used to fish together, and when they meet up while Paris is being besieged, they decide to risk fishing.Again. They sneak up to the river to a place where they think they cannot be seen and are very successful with their fishing, until they are caught by the Germans and accused of spying…
It was short, and simple, and sad. Many of Maupassant’s stories are set during the Franco-Prussian war and are heavily influenced by it.