This description is of a mule name Jenny after she'd been shot. She is bleeding out while standing up, but eventually her strength goes out of her and her head lowers, then slowly she falls over dead. In the story, the boy, Dave, doesn't mean to shoot the mule. He's excited to take her out to plow in the far field so he can try out the new gun he'd bought, but when he shoots the gun, it's clear that he has never shot a gun before. He accidentally shoots Jenny, the mule.