Household Tales · Chapter
The Dog and the Sparrow explained
A mistreated dog leaves his cruel master and meets a sparrow who helps him find food.
What happens
A mistreated dog leaves his cruel master and meets a sparrow who helps him find food. After the dog is killed by a careless wagoner, the sparrow exacts a brutal revenge, destroying the wagoner's wine, horses, and home, and ultimately causing his death.
Themes in this chapter
Virtue Rewarded and Vice Punished
The dog's loyalty and the sparrow's friendship are contrasted with the wagoner's cruelty; the wagoner's vice leads to his destruction.
Greed and Its Downfall
The wagoner's greed and disregard for life (running over the dog, refusing to stop) result in the loss of his property and life.
Characters to notice
- Unknown
The dog is a sheepdog who suffers hunger under a bad master and is killed by a wagoner.
- Unknown
The sparrow is the dog's loyal friend who avenges his death through a series of destructive acts.
- Unknown
The wagoner is the driver who runs over the dog and is ultimately killed by his wife while trying to kill the sparrow.
- Unknown
The wagoner's wife is mentioned as she tries to kill the sparrow but accidentally kills her husband.
Key passages
“A sheepdog had not a good master, but, on the contrary, one who let him suffer hunger. As he could stay no longer with him, he went quite sadly away.”
A sheepdog was mistreated by his master, who starved him, so the dog left sadly.
Establishes the dog's initial plight and motivation for leaving.
“Wagoner, don't do it, or I will make thee poor.”
The sparrow warned the wagoner not to drive over the sleeping dog, threatening to ruin him.
Key moment where the sparrow tries to prevent the dog's death.
“The woman struck, but missed her blow, and hit the wagoner right on his head, so that he fell dead.”
The wife swung the axe but missed the sparrow and struck her husband, killing him.
Climactic irony: the wagoner's own plan to kill the sparrow results in his own death.