The Princess and the Pea - Fairy Tale by Hans Christian Andersen

There was once a lived a Prince, who wanted a Princess, however, she must be a real Princess. He traveled all around the world to find one, but something was always wrong. There were a lot of princesses, but whether they were real princesses or not, he had great trouble in finding out; there was always something which wasn't right about them. So at last he went home, and he was very sad because he wanted a real princess so desperately.

One evening there was a very horrible storm; the thunder and the rain poured down in the torrents; it was a fearful night.

In the middle of the storm somebody knocked at the town’s gate, and the old King himself was sent to open it.

It was a Princess who stood outside, but she was in a terrible state due to the rain and the storm. The water streamed out of her hair, her clothes and her shoes, but she said that she was a real Princess.

'Well we shall soon see if that is true,' thought the old Queen. She went into the bedroom, took all the bed clothes off and placed a pea on the bedstead. She then took twenty mattresses and piled them on top of the pea, then twenty feather beds on top of the mattresses. This was where the Princess was going to sleep that stormy night.

In the morning they asked her how she slept.

'Oh terribly bad!' replied the Princess. 'I hardly closed my eyes the last night! Heaven knows what was in the bed. I seemed to be lying upon some hard thing, and my whole body is black and blue this morning. It was terrible!'

They saw at once that she must be a real Princess because she felt the pea, even through twenty mattresses and twenty feather beds. Nobody but a real Princess could have such a delicate skin.

So the Prince took her to be his wife, for now he was sure that he had found a real Princess, and the pea was placed into the Museum, where it may still be if no one had stolen it.

Now this is a true story.

The Princess and The Pea (YouTube)

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ct68qfIKwY)

Story adapted from FairyTales.Co (http://www.fairytales.co/the_princess_and_the_pea.html)