The Princess and the Pea
By Hans ChristianAndersen (1835)
ONCE upon a time there was a prince who wanted tomarry a princess; but she would have to be a real princess. He travelled allover the world to find one, but nowhere could he get what he wanted. There wereprincesses enough, but it was difficult to find out whether they were realones. There was always something about them that was not as it should be. So hecame home again and was sad, for he would have liked very much to have a realprincess.
One evening a terrible storm came on; there wasthunder and lightning, and the rain poured down in torrents. Suddenly aknocking was heard at the city gate, and the old king went to open it.
It was a princess standing out there in front of thegate. But, good gracious! what a sight the rain and the wind had made her look.The water ran down from her hair and clothes; it ran down into the toes of hershoes and out again at the heels. And yet she said that she was a realprincess.
“Well, we’ll soon find that out,” thought the oldqueen. But she said nothing, went into the bed-room, took all the bedding offthe bedstead, and laid a pea on the bottom; then she took twenty mattresses andlaid them on the pea, and then twenty eider-down beds on top of the mattresses.
On this the princess had to lie all night. In themorning she was asked how she had slept.
“Oh, very badly!” said she. “I have scarcely closed myeyes all night. Heaven only knows what was in the bed, but I was lying onsomething hard, so that I am black and blue all over my body. It’s horrible!”
Now they knew that she was a real princess because shehad felt the pea right through the twenty mattresses and the twenty eider-downbeds.
Nobody but a real princess could be as sensitive as that.
So the prince took her for his wife, for now he knewthat he had a real princess; and the pea was put in the museum, where it maystill be seen, if no one has stolen it.
There, that is a true story.
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