The Dog and the Sparrow

A shepherd’s dog had a master who took no care of him and often left him starving. At last he could bear it no longer; he took to his heels in a sad mood. On the road a sparrow asked why he looked so down. He said he was very hungry and had nothing to eat. “If that is all,” said the sparrow, “come into the next town; I will find you food.”

They passed a butcher’s. The sparrow told him to wait, perched on the shelf, looked carefully about, and pecked and scratched at a steak until it fell. The dog snapped it up and ate it in a corner. She pecked him down another steak at the next shop. When he had eaten that too she asked if he had enough. He had plenty of meat, he said, but would like bread after it. She took him to a baker’s and pecked two rolls from the window; when he still wanted more she pecked down more at another shop. Then he said yes, he had enough, and they walked a little way out of town.

The weather was warm; soon the dog was tired and wanted a nap. The sparrow said he should sleep while she perched on a bush. He stretched out on the road and fell fast asleep. Along came a carter with a cart drawn by three horses, loaded with two casks of wine. Seeing he would not turn aside but drive over the dog, the sparrow called, “Stop! stop! Mr Carter, or it shall be the worse for you.” The carter grumbled—what could a bird do?—cracked his whip, and crushed the dog to death under the wheels. “You cruel villain,” cried the sparrow; “you have killed my friend. This deed shall cost you all you are worth.” “Do your worst,” said the brute, and passed on.

She crept under the tilt, pecked the bung of one cask until it loosened, and all the wine ran out unseen. When the carter saw the dripping cart and empty cask he cried what an unlucky wretch he was. “Not wretch enough yet!” said the sparrow. She alighted on a horse’s head and pecked until it reared. He swung his hatchet at her; she flew; the blow killed the horse. “Not wretch enough yet!” she said. She emptied the second cask the same way, pecked the second horse, and when he struck at her he killed that horse too. On the third horse she pecked again; mad with fury, he struck without looking and killed his last horse as well. “Not wretch enough yet!” she answered as she flew. “Now I will plague you at your own house.”

Forced to leave the cart, he went home overflowing with rage. He told his wife the wine was spilt and all three horses dead. “Alas,” she said, “and a wicked bird has brought all the birds in the world into our loft; they are eating up our corn at such a rate!” He ran upstairs and saw thousands of birds on the floor with the sparrow in their midst; the corn was almost gone. “Not wretch enough yet!” she said. “Your cruelty shall cost you your life!” and flew away.

He had lost all he had, yet sat angrily in the chimney corner without remorse. Outside the window the sparrow cried that his cruelty should cost him his life. He jumped up, seized his hatchet, and threw it—missed her, broke the window. She hopped onto the window-seat and cried the same. Blind with rage he cleft the seat in two; as she flew from place to place, he and his wife smashed furniture, glasses, chairs, benches, the table, and at last the walls, without touching her. At last they caught her. The wife asked if she should kill her at once. “No,” he cried; “that is too easy; I will eat her.” The sparrow fluttered and cried that it should cost him his life yet. He could wait no longer; he gave his wife the hatchet and told her to strike the bird in his hand. She swung, missed, and hit her husband on the head so that he fell dead. The sparrow flew quietly home to her nest.

Where this story comes from

“The Dog and the Sparrow” is a German tale from the Brothers Grimm, not an Indian one. It appears in Margaret Hunt’s 1884 translation as number 58, Der Hund und der Sperling, and is retold here from the Project Gutenberg text based on Edgar Taylor and Marian Edwardes.

The linked English version joins two movements: the sparrow feeds a neglected dog, then pursues the carter after he kills her friend. The repeated refrain links the increasingly destructive revenge episodes.

This is a fierce revenge story, and its violent ending, in which the carter is killed by his own wife’s blow, is kept from the source.

Read the original: Grimms’ Fairy Tales, tr. Edgar Taylor and Marian Edwardes (Project Gutenberg #2591, The Dog and the Sparrow)

Reading guidance: older readers. Includes fatal animal cruelty, the killing of three horses, escalating revenge and a wife accidentally killing her husband with a hatchet.

Reading the story closely

The sparrow begins by meeting the dog’s needs and ends by directing destruction. Her small size makes the reversal dramatic, but the horses and the carter’s wife also suffer. Each missed blow widens the harm: the carter aims at the bird while striking what is close to him.

Make a sequence of intended target and actual victim for the hatchet blows. Then read the repeated refrain in two voices, triumphant and grieving. Does either performance change how you judge the bird’s victory, even though the events stay the same?

Talk about it

• Why does the sparrow become the dog’s friend in the first place?
• The carter could have stopped at any point. Why do you think he keeps making things worse for himself?
• Is the sparrow’s revenge fair, or does it go too far? Give a reason.

Related stories

• The Willow-Wren and the Bear — a tiny Grimm bird who stands up to a much bigger animal
• The Fox and the Horse — a fox helps an old horse rejected by its owner
• The Mouse, the Bird, and the Sausage — a Grimm animal story that also ends badly for nearly everyone