THE STRAW, THE COAL, AND THE BEAN_Grimms' Fairy Tales by The Brothers Grimm...^^..

THE STRAW, THE COAL, AND THE BEAN_Grimms' Fairy Tales by The
Brothers Grimm...^^..

In a village dwelt a poor old woman, who had gathered together a
dish of beans and wanted to cook them. So she made a fire on her
hearth, and that it might burn the quicker, she lighted it with a
handful of straw. When she was emptying the beans into the pan,
one dropped without her observing it, and lay on the ground beside
a straw, and soon afterwards a burning coal from the fire leapt
down to the two. Then the straw began and said: " Dear friends,
from whence do you come here ?" The coal replied: " I
fortunately sprang out of the fire, and if I had not escaped by
sheer force, my death would have been certain, I should have
been burnt to ashes."

The bean said: " I too have escaped with a whole skin, but if the
old woman had got me into the pan, I should have been made
into broth without any mercy, like my comrades." " And would
a better fate have fallen to my lot ?" said the straw. " The old
woman has destroyed all my brethren in fire and smoke; she seized
sixty of them at once, and took their lives. I luckily slipped
through her fingers." " But what are we to do now ?" said the coal.
" I think," answered the bean, " That as we have so fortunately
escaped death, we should keep together like good companions,
and lest a new mischance should overtake us here, we should go
away together, and repair to a foreign country."

The proposition pleased the two others, and they set out on their
way together. Soon, however, they came to a little brook, and
as there was no bridge or foot plank, they did not know how they
were to get over it. The straw hit on a good idea, and said:
" I will lay myself straight across, and then you can walk over on
me as on a bridge." The straw therefore stretched itself from
one bank to the other, and the coal, who was of an impetuous
disposition, tripped quite boldly on to the newly built bridge. But
when she had reached the middle, and heard the water rushing
beneath her, she was after all, afraid, and stood still, and
ventured no farther.

The straw, however, began to burn, broke in two pieces, and fell
into the stream. The coal slipped after her, hissed when she got
into the water, and breathed her last. The bean, who had prudently
stayed behind on the shore, could not but laugh at the event, was
unable to stop, and laughed so heartily that she burst. It would
have been all over with her, likewise, if, by good fortune, a tailor
who was travelling in search of work, had not sat down to rest
by the brook. As he had a compassionate heart he pulled out his
needle and thread, and sewed her together. The bean thanked
him most prettily, but as the tailor used black thread, all beans
since then have a black seam.

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Norshahuddin Edited Mac 2014...^^..