Forgotten Fairytales – A bean and the Tailor
Once upon a time…
In a village far out in the country was an old and poor woman who wanted to cook dinner. She was so poor that she couldn’t afford any meat, and so she gathered a bowl filled with beans. She was also too old and weak to gather firewood for her stove so she used straw to make her fire for cooking.
Then as she was pouring the beans into the kettle, one had dropped onto the floor without her knowing. When she grabbed a handful of straw and tossed it on the fire, she mistakenly left one piece of straw on the ground next to the bean which had fallen. Soon afterwards, a piece of coal leapt from the fire and landed next to the bean and piece of straw.
The bean was the first to speak,
“My friends. How lucky I have been. If I wouldn’t have jumped from the plate at the last second, I surely would have died like my brothers who are being turned to broth as we speak!”
The coal replied,
“By using all my strength and luck of brute force was I able to leap from the fire escape death, otherwise I would have surely been burnt to ashes.”
Then the straw spoke,
“By sheer luck, the woman missed grabbing me for the fire, where she tossed hundreds of my brothers into the inferno and there death!”
This was an odd lot, but since each of them were considerably lucky, they decided to stick together and become companions.
“what shall we do?” asked the straw.
The bean replied,
“We must escape this woman, for if we stay, it could mean the end for the lot of us. We shall travel together, and make due another way in this world.”
The three companions agreed and left the old woman to venture into the world. Soon enough, they came to realize the harshness of the outside world when they came across a little brook of running water and didn’t have a way to cross.
The straw came up with an idea that he would lay his long body across the brook so the bean and the coal could cross. Therefore, the straw stretched his body across the water and the bean crossed safely to the other side. When the coal started to cross though, he became frightened of the rushing water, for if he should slip and fall, it would quench his fire and be the end of him.
The straw was screaming in pain,
“You must hurry Mr. Coal! I fear you are burning me and I cannot hold on much longer!”
But the coal wasn’t listening because of the fear he had from the water. Soon enough, the piece of straw burst into flames. Jumping all over, the straw lost his grip and fell into the brook and was swept away. When the coal hit the water there was a strong hissing sound and the coal breathed his last breath.
Meanwhile, the bean had watched this happening from safety, and was so distraught that he cried and wept so hard that his body exploded. This would have been the end for the bean, but fortunately, as the bean was laying there dying, a tailor was travelling down the road and noticed the exploded bean.
The tailor picked up the bean, pulled out a needle and thread, and stitched the bean back together. Giving thanks, the bean decided to travel with the tailor, but as the tailor had used black threading, all beans from then on out would also contain the black seam…
Hi @justiceforall, I just stopped back to let you know your post was one of my favourite reads yesterday and I included it in my Steemit Ramble. You can read what I wrote about your post here.