Explain how the pun in the line "The morning house lay empty" explains why the house is empty and foreshadows the story's later revelation of the family's fate.

The sentence "The morning house lay empty" has a double meaning. Its literal meaning is that it is morning and the house is empty. But there is a pun contained in the word "morning," because it can be read as "mourning," meaning to grieve. This is a clue that the house is empty because, as we will later find out, the family is dead.