5. "But what are we to do now?" asked the coal.
"I think," answered the bean, "that as we have so fortunately escaped death, we should keep together like good companions. Lest a new mischance should overtake us here, let us go away to a foreign country."
6. This plan pleased the two others, and they set out on their way together. Soon, however, they came to a little brook, and, as there was no bridge, they did not know how they were to get over.
At last the straw said: "I will lay myself across, and then you can walk over on me as on a bridge."
7. The straw, therefore, stretched herself from one bank to the other, and the coal, who was of an impetuous nature, tripped forward quite boldly on the newly built bridge. But when she reached the middle and heard the water rushing beneath her, she was, after all, frightened, and stood still.
8. The straw then began to burn, broke in two pieces, and fell into the stream. The coal slipped after her, hissed when she sank into the water, and breathed her last.
The bean, who had prudently stayed behind on the shore, could not help laughing at these events, and laughed so heartily that she burst.
9. It would have been all over with her also, if, by good fortune, a tailor who was traveling in search of work had not sat down to rest by the brook. Pitying the poor bean, he pulled out his needle and thread and sewed her together. She thanked him prettily, but, as the tailor used black thread, beans since then have a black seam.