The Sparrow cried out after him, ‘Carter, you have killed my brother Dog; it will cost you your wagon and your team.’
‘My wagon and my team indeed, what harm can you do me?’ asked the Carter, as he drove on. The Sparrow crept under the tarpaulin and pecked at the bunghole of one of the casks till the bung came out, and all the wine trickled away without the Carter’s being aware of it. When he looked round and saw the wine dripping from the wagon, he examined the casks and found that one was empty.
‘Alas, poor man that I am!’ he cried.
‘Not poor enough yet,’ said the Sparrow, as he flew on to the head of one of the horses and pecked out its eyes. When the Carter saw what he was doing, he seized his chopper to throw it at the Sparrow; but the bird flew away, and the chopper hit the horse on the head, and he dropped down dead.
‘Alas, poor man that I am!’ he cried.
‘Not poor enough yet,’ said the Sparrow. As the Carter drove on with his two horses, the Sparrow again crept under the tarpaulin and pecked the bung out of the second cask, so that all the wine ran out.
When the Carter perceived it, he cried again, ‘Alas, poor man that I am!’
But the Sparrow answered, ‘Not poor enough yet’; and he seated himself on the head of the second horse and pecked its eyes out. The Carter ran up with his big chopper and struck at him; but the Sparrow flew away, and the blow hit the horse and killed it.
‘Alas, poor man that I am!’ cried the Carter.
‘Not poor enough yet,’ said the Sparrow, as he perched on the head of the third horse and pecked out its eyes. In his rage, the Carter struck out at the Sparrow with his chopper without taking aim, missed the Sparrow, but hit his last horse on the head, and it fell down dead.
‘Alas, poor man that I am!’
“Not poor enough yet,’ said the Sparrow. ‘Now, I will bring poverty to your home’; and he flew away.
