The Straw, The Coal, and the Bean

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The straw, the coal and the bean. 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

(00:22):
dropped without her observing it, and lay on the ground
beside a straw, And soon afterwards a burning coal from
the fire leaped down to the two. 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

(00:43):
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 of all into my lot? Said the straw.
The old woman has destroyed all my brethren in fire

(01:05):
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

(01:27):
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,

(01:50):
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 display position, 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,

(02:10):
and stood still and ventured no farther. The straw, however,
began to burn, broke in two pieces, and fell into
the stream. The coals 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

(02:32):
laughed so heartily that she burst. It would have been
all over with her. Likewise, if by good fortune, a
tailor who was traveling 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,

(02:53):
but as the tailor used black thread, all beans since
then have a black seam. End of the straw, the
coal and the bean