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TRACK 8 (PRACTICE 2, ACTIVITIES 11 AND 12)

“The Straw, the Coal and the Bean” By Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
An old woman lived in a village. She had gathered a serving of beans and wanted to cook them, so
she prepared a fire in her fireplace. To make it burn faster she lit it with a handful of straw. While she
was pouring the beans into the pot, one of them fell unnoticed to the floor, coming to rest next to a
piece of straw. Soon afterward a glowing coal jumped out of the fireplace and landed next to them.
The straw said, "Dear friends, where do you come from?"
The coal answered, "I jumped from the fireplace, to my good fortune. If I had not forced my way out,
I surely would have died. I would have burned to ash."
The bean said, "I, too, saved my skin. If the old woman had gotten me into the pot I would have been
cooked to mush without mercy, just like my comrades."
"Would my fate have been any better?" said the straw. "The old woman sent all my brothers up in fire
and smoke. She grabbed sixty at once and killed them. Fortunately I slipped through her fingers."
"What should we do now?" asked the coal.
"Because we have so fortunately escaped death," answered the bean, "I think that we should join
together as comrades. To prevent some new misfortune from befalling us here, let us together make
our way to another land."
This proposal pleased the other two, and they set forth all together.
They soon came to a small brook, and because there was neither a bridge nor a walkway there, they
did not know how they would get across it.
Then the straw had a good idea, and said, "I will lay myself across it, and you can walk across me like
on a bridge."
So the straw stretched himself from one bank to the other. The coal, who was a hot-headed fellow,
stepped brashly onto the newly constructed bridge, but when he got to the middle and heard the
water rushing beneath him, he took fright, stopped, and did not dare to go any further. Then the
straw caught fire, broke into two pieces, and fell into the brook. The coal slid after him, hissed as he
fell into the water, and gave up the ghost.
The bean who had cautiously stayed behind on the bank had to laugh at the event. He could not
stop, and he laughed so fiercely that he burst. Now he too would have died, but fortunately a
wandering tailor was there, resting near the brook. Having a compassionate heart, he got out a
needle and thread and sewed the bean back together.
The bean thanked him most kindly. However, because he had used black thread, since that time all
beans have had a black seam.

TRACK 9 (PRACTICE 2, ACTIVITY 14)

One day, when he knew for certain that the king would be taking a ride along the riverside with his
daughter, the most beautiful princess in the world, he said to his master, "If you will follow my advice,
your fortune is made. All you must do is to go and bathe yourself in the river at the place I show you,
then leave the rest to me."
The Marquis of Carabas did what the cat advised him to, without knowing why. While he was
bathing, the king passed by, and the cat began to cry out, "Help! Help! My Lord Marquis of Carabas
is going to be drown.
At this commotion, the king put his head out of the coach window, and, finding it was the cat who
had so often brought him such good game, he commanded his guards to run immediately to the
assistance of his lordship, the Marquis of Carabas. While they were helping the poor marquis out of
the river, the cat came up to the coach and told the king that, while his master was bathing, some
rogues had come by and stolen his clothes, even though he had cried out, "Thieves! Thieves!" several
times, as loud as he could. In truth, the cunning cat had hidden the clothes under a large stone.

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