--- title: The Straw, the Coal, and the Bean — Grimms' Fairy Tales · full text with trees description: The Straw, the Coal, and the Bean, «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: In a village dwelt a poor old woman, who had gathered together a dish of beans and wanted to cook them. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/7/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Grimms' Fairy Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/) / The Straw, the Coal, and the Bean # The Straw, the Coal, and the Bean The Straw, the Coal, and the Bean of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm: the whole text, 22 sentences and 507 words. Every sentence has its own page with its syntax tree and pragmatics, parsed by Mova itself. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/7/1/) — In a village dwelt a poor old woman, who had gathered together a dish of beans and wanted to cook them. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/7/2/) — So she made a fire on her hearth, and that it might burn the quicker, she lighted it with a handful of straw. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/7/3/) — 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. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/7/4/) — Then the straw began and said: ‘Dear friends, from whence do you come here?’ - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/7/5/) — 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.’ - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/7/6/) — 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.’ - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/7/7/) — ‘And would a better fate have fallen to my lot?’ said the straw. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/7/8/) — ‘The old woman has destroyed all my brethren in fire and smoke; she seized sixty of them at once, and took their lives. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/7/9/) — I luckily slipped through her fingers.’ - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/7/10/) — ‘But what are we to do now?’ said the coal. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/7/11/) — ‘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.’ - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/7/12/) — The proposition pleased the two others, and they set out on their way together. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/7/13/) — 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. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/7/14/) — 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.’ - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/7/15/) — 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. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/7/16/) — 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. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/7/17/) — The straw, however, began to burn, broke in two pieces, and fell into the stream. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/7/18/) — The coal slipped after her, hissed when she got into the water, and breathed her last. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/7/19/) — 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. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/7/20/) — 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. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/7/21/) — As he had a compassionate heart he pulled out his needle and thread, and sewed her together. - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/7/22/) — The bean thanked him most prettily, but as the tailor used black thread, all beans since then have a black seam. - ← previous: [Old Sultan](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/6/) - next →: [Briar Rose](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/8/) - ↑ back to [Grimms' Fairy Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2591/)