Straw, Coal, and Bean

In a small warm kitchen an old woman was getting ready to cook a pot of beans. She put dry straw into the fireplace and lit it so the fire would start quickly. Then she poured shiny little beans into a pot. One tiny bean bounced away, rolled across the floor, and came to rest beside a piece of straw.

Just then a glowing little coal popped out of the fire and landed next to them. The friendly straw said, Dear friends, where do you come from? The coal said, I jumped out of the fire just in time. If I had stayed there, I would have burned away to nothing.

The bean said, I also escaped. If I had fallen into the cooking pot, I would have been boiled until I was soft like mush. The straw sighed and said, The old woman put all my straw friends into the fire. I slipped away and hid here on the floor.

The three new friends were very glad to have escaped danger. We have been lucky, said the bean. Let us go away together and find a safe, new place to live. The straw and the coal liked this idea, so the three set off together.

They slipped under the door and went along the garden path until they came to a little brook. The water splashed and laughed as it ran by. There was no bridge and no stones to step on, so they stopped and wondered how to get across.

At last the straw had an idea. I am long and light, he said. I will lay myself across the water. Then you can walk over me like a little bridge. The straw stretched himself from one bank to the other.

The coal, who was full of energy, went first. He stepped onto the straw and started to cross the brook. When he reached the middle and heard the rushing water below, he felt a little afraid and stopped. The straw began to feel the coal's warm heat and suddenly grew hot. In a tiny flash the straw turned dark and fell into the water, and the coal slipped in after him with a gentle hiss. The cool brook water carried the straw and the coal safely away like two tiny boats.

The bean had stayed on the bank to watch. When he saw his friends bobbing and floating down the stream, he laughed in surprise. He laughed and laughed until, oh dear, he suddenly split open with a pop. Just then a kind tailor was walking by the brook. He heard the funny sound and looked down. There he saw the little bean, split almost in two. The tailor had a gentle heart. He took a needle and some black thread from his pocket and carefully sewed the bean back together. The bean felt much better and thanked the tailor in a tiny voice. Because the tailor had used black thread, the bean was left with a neat dark line along its side like a little coat seam. And from that day on, all beans have a thin black line on their sides to remember the straw, the coal, the kind tailor, and the day the little bean laughed too hard.