5. The Straw, the Coal, and the Bean
6. Snow-White and Rose-Red

The Straw, the Coal, and the Bean
(Strohhalm, Kohle und Bohne)

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 where do you come here?" The coal replied, "I fortunately sprang out of the fire, and if I had not escaped by main 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 in company. 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 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, but as the tailor used black thread, all beans since then have a black seam.

Snow-White and Rose-Red
(Schneeweisschen und Rosenrot)

There was once a poor widow who lived in a lonely cottage. In front of the cottage was a garden, and in that garden stood two rose-trees. One tree bore white flowers and the other red roses. She had two children who were like the two rose-trees, and one was called Snow-white, and the other Rose-red. They were as good and happy, as busy and cheerful as ever two children in the world were, only Snow-white was more quiet and gentle than Rose-red. Rose-red liked better to run about in the meadows and fields seeking flowers and catching butterflies; but Snow-white sat at home with her mother, and helped her with her house-work, or read to her when there was nothing to do.

The two children were so fond of each other that they always held each other by the hand when they went out together, and when Snow-white said, "We will not leave each other," Rose-red answered, "Never so long as we live," and their mother would add, "What one has she must share with the other."

They often ran about the forest alone and gathered red berries, and no beasts did them any harm, but came close to them trustfully. The little hare would eat a cabbage-leaf out of their hands, the roe grazed by their side, the stag leapt merrily by them, and the birds sat still on the boughs and sang whatever they knew.

No mishap overtook them; if they had stayed too late in the forest and night came on, they laid themselves down near one another on the moss and slept till morning came. Their mother knew this and had no distress on their account.

Once when they had spent the night in the wood and the dawn had roused them, they saw a beautiful child in a shining white dress sitting near their bed. He got up and looked quite kindly at them, but said nothing and went away into the forest. And when they looked round they found that they had been sleeping quite close to a precipice, and would certainly have fallen into it in the darkness if they had gone only a few paces further. And their mother told them that it must have been the angel who watches over good children.

Snow-white and Rose-red kept their mother's little cottage so neat that it was a pleasure to look inside it. In the summer Rose-red took care of the house, and every morning laid a wreath of flowers by her mother's bed before she awoke, in which was a rose from each tree. In the winter Snow-white lit the fire and hung the kettle on the hook. The kettle was of copper and shone like gold, so brightly was it polished. In the evening, when the snowflakes fell, the mother said, "Go, Snow-white, and bolt the door," and then they sat round the hearth. The mother took her glasses and read aloud out of a large book, and the two girls listened as they sat and span. Close by them lay a lamb on the floor, and behind them on a perch sat a white dove with its head hidden beneath its wings.

One evening as they were thus sitting comfortably together, someone knocked at the door as if he wished to be let in. The mother said, "Quick, Rose-red, open the door, it must be a traveller who is seeking shelter."

Rose-red went and pushed back the bolt, thinking that it was a poor man, but it was not; it was a bear that stretched his broad, black head within the door.

Rose-red screamed and sprang back, the lamb bleated, the dove fluttered, and Snow-white hid herself behind her mother's bed. But the bear began to speak and said, "Do not be afraid! I'll do you no harm. I am half-frozen, and only want to warm myself a little beside you."

"Poor bear," said the mother, "lie down by the fire, only take care that you don't burn your coat."

Then she cried, "Snow-white, Rose-red, come out, the bear will do you no harm; he means well."

So they both came out, and by-and-by the lamb and dove came nearer and were not afraid of him. The bear said, "Here, children, knock the snow out of my coat a little;" so they brought the broom and swept the bear's hide clean; and he stretched himself by the fire and growled contentedly and comfortably.

It was not long before they grew quite at home, and played tricks with their clumsy guest. They tugged his hair with their hands, put their feet on his back and rolled him about, or they took a hazel-switch and beat him, and when he growled they laughed. But the bear took it all in good part, only when they were too rough he called out, "Leave me alive, children,

"Snowy-white, Rosy-red,
Will you beat your lover dead?"

When it was bed-time, and the others went to bed, the mother said to the bear, "You can lie there by the hearth, and then you will be safe from the cold and the bad weather."

As soon as day dawned the two children let him out, and he trotted across the snow into the forest.

From now on the bear came every evening at the same time, laid himself down by the hearth and let the children amuse themselves with him as much as they liked; and they got so used to him that the doors were never fastened until their black friend had arrived.

When spring had come and all outside was green, the bear said one morning to Snow-white, "Now I must go away and cannot come back for the whole summer."

"Where are you going, then, dear bear?" asked Snow-white.

"I must go into the forest and guard my treasures from the wicked dwarfs. In the winter, when the earth is frozen hard, they have to stay below and cannot work their way through; but now when the sun has thawed and warmed the earth, they break through it and come out to pry and steal. And what once gets into their hands and in their caves, does not easily see daylight again."

Snow-white was quite sorry for his going away, but unbolted the door for him still. When the bear was hurrying out, he caught against the bolt and a piece of his hairy coat was torn off. It seemed to Snow-white as if she had seen gold shining through it, but she was not sure about it. The bear ran away quickly, and was soon out of sight behind the trees.

A short time afterwards the mother sent her children into the forest to get fire-wood. There they found a big tree which lay felled on the ground, and close by the trunk something was jumping backwards and forwards in the grass, but they could not make out what it was. When they came nearer they saw a dwarf with an old withered face and a snow-white beard a yard long. The end of the beard was caught in a crevice of the tree, and the little fellow was jumping backwards and forwards like a dog tied to a rope, and did not know what to do.

He glared at the girls with his fiery red eyes and cried, "Why do you stand there? Can't you come here and help me?"

"What are you about there, little man?" asked Rose-red.

"You prying goose!" answered the dwarf; "I was going to split the tree to get a little wood for cooking. The little bit of food that we little folks need gets burnt up directly with thick logs, and we do not swallow so much as you big, greedy folk. I had just driven the wedge safely in and everything was going as I wished, but the wretched wood was too smooth and suddenly sprang asunder and the tree closed so quickly that I could not pull out my beautiful white beard. So now it is tight in and I cannot get away, and you sleek, milk-faced girls laugh! Ugh! how odious you are!"

The children tried very hard, but they could not pull the beard out. It was caught too fast.

"I will run and fetch someone," said Rose-red.

"You senseless goose!" snarled the dwarf; why should you fetch someone? You are already two too many for me; can't you think of something better?"

"Don't be impatient," said Snow-white, "I will help you." She pulled her scissors out of her pocket and cut off the end of the beard.

As soon as the dwarf felt himself free he laid hold of a bag that lay among the roots of the tree, and was full of gold. He lifted it up, grumbling to himself, "Uncouth people, to cut off a piece of my fine beard. Oh! Ugh!" and then he swung the bag on his back and went off without even once looking at the children.

Some time after that, Snow-white and Rose-red went to catch a dish of fish. As they came near the brook, they saw something like a large grasshopper jumping towards the water, as if it were going to leap in. They ran to it and found it was the dwarf.

"Where are you going?" said Rose-red; "you surely don't want to go into the water?"

"I am not such a fool!" cried the dwarf; don't you see that the fish wants to pull me in?" The little man had been sitting there fishing. Unluckily the wind had twisted his beard with the fishing-line and just then a big fish bit. The feeble dwarf did not have the strength needed to pull it out of the water, so the fish kept the upper hand and pulled the dwarf towards him. The dwarf held on to all the reeds and rushes, but it was of little good, he was forced to follow the movements of the fish and was in urgent danger of being dragged into the water.

The girls came just in time; they held him fast and tried to free his beard from the line, but all in vain, beard and line were entangled fast together. Nothing was left but to bring out the scissors and cut the beard. And so a small part of it was lost. When the dwarf saw that, he screamed out, "Is that civil, to disfigure one's face? Was it not enough to clip off the end of my beard? Now you have cut off the best part of it. I cannot let myself be seen by my people. Ugh!" Then he took out a sack of pearls which lay in the rushes, and without saying a word more he dragged it away and disappeared behind a stone.

Soon afterwards the mother sent the two children to the town to buy needles and thread, and laces and ribbons. The road led them across a heath where huge pieces of rock lay strewn here and there. Now they noticed a large bird hovering in the air, flying slowly round and round above them. It sank lower and lower and at last settled near a rock not far off. Directly afterwards they heard a loud, piteous cry. They ran up and saw with horror that the eagle had seized their old acquaintance, the dwarf, and was going to carry him off.

The children, full of pity, at once took tight hold of the little man and pulled against the eagle so long that at last he let his booty go. As soon as the dwarf had recovered from his first fright he cried with his shrill voice, "Couldn't you have done it more carefully! You dragged at my brown coat so that it is all torn and full of holes! Ugh!" Then he took up a sack full of precious stones, and slipped away again under the rock into his hole. The girls, who by this time were used to his thanklessness, went on their way and did their business in the town.

As they crossed the heath again on their way home they surprised the dwarf: he had emptied out his bag of precious stones in a clean spot, and had not thought that anyone would come there so late. The evening sun shone on the brilliant stones; they glittered and sparkled with all colors so beautifully that the children stood still and looked at them.

"Why do you stand gaping there?" cried the dwarf, and his ashen-gray face became copper-red with rage. He was going on with his bad words when a loud growling was heard and a black bear came trotting towards them out of the forest. The dwarf sprang up in a fright, but he could not get to his cave, for the bear was already close. Then in the dread of his heart he cried, "Dear bear, spare me, I will give you all my treasures; look, the beautiful jewels lying there! Oh, let me live; what do you want with such a slender little fellow as I? You would hardly feel me between your teeth. Come, take these two girls, they are tender morsels for you, fat as young quails. For mercy's sake eat them!" The bear took no heed of his words, but gave the wicked creature a single blow with his paw, and the gruesome dwarf did not move again.

The girls had run away, but the bear called to them, "Snow-white and Rose-red, do not be afraid; wait, I will come with you."

Then they knew his voice and waited, and when he came up to them, suddenly his bearskin fell off, and he stood there, a handsome man, clothed all in gold.

"I am a king's son," he said, "and I was bewitched by that wicked dwarf, who had stolen my treasures. I have had to run about the forest as a savage bear until I was freed by his death. Now he has got his well-deserved punishment."

Snow-white was married to him, and Rose-red to his brother, and they divided between them the great treasure that the dwarf had gathered in his cave. The old mother lived peacefully and happily with her children for many years. She took the two rose-trees with her and they stood before her window and every year bore the most beautiful roses, white and red. [Edited]