has brought with her all the birds in the world, I am sure, and they
have fallen upon our corn in the loft, and are eating it up at such a
rate!' Away ran the husband upstairs, and saw thousands of birds
sitting upon the floor eating up his corn, with the sparrow in the
midst of them. 'Unlucky wretch that I am!' cried the carter; for he
saw that the corn was almost all gone. 'Not wretch enough yet!' said
the sparrow; 'thy cruelty shall cost thee they life yet!' and away she
flew.

The carter seeing that he had thus lost all that he had, went down
into his kitchen; and was still not sorry for what he had done, but
sat himself angrily and sulkily in the chimney corner. But the sparrow
sat on the outside of the window, and cried 'Carter! thy cruelty shall
cost thee thy life!' With that he jumped up in a rage, seized his
hatchet, and threw it at the sparrow; but it missed her, and only
broke the window. The sparrow now hopped in, perched upon the window-
seat, and cried, 'Carter! it shall cost thee thy life!' Then he became
mad and blind with rage, and struck the window-seat with such force
that he cleft it in two: and as the sparrow flew from place to place,
the carter and his wife were so furious, that they broke all their
furniture, glasses, chairs, benches, the table, and at last the walls,
without touching the bird at all. In the end, however, they caught
her: and the wife said, 'Shall I kill her at once?' 'No,' cried he,
'that is letting her off too easily: she shall die a much more cruel
death; I will eat her.' But the sparrow began to flutter about, and
stretch out her neck and cried, 'Carter! it shall cost thee thy life
yet!' With that he could wait no longer: so he gave his wife the
hatchet, and cried, 'Wife, strike at the bird and kill her in my
hand.' And the wife struck; but she missed her aim, and hit her
husband on the head so that he fell down dead, and the sparrow flew