The Princess and the Pea

Once upon a time there was a prince who wanted to marry a princess, but she had to be a real princess. So he travelled all over the world to find one, but everywhere there was something wrong. There were plenty of princesses, but he could never be quite sure whether they were real ones; there was always something not quite right. So he came home again and was very sad, because he wanted so much to marry a real princess.

One evening a terrible storm blew up. Lightning flashed, thunder roared, and the rain poured down; it was really frightful. In the middle of it, someone knocked at the town gate, and the old king went to open it.

Outside stood a princess. But goodness, what a state the rain and the storm had put her in! Water was running from her hair and her clothes; it ran in at the toes of her shoes and out at the heels. And yet she said she was a real princess.

"Well, we'll soon find that out," thought the old queen, but she said nothing. She went into the bedroom, took all the bedding off the bed and put a single pea on the bottom of it. Then she piled twenty mattresses on top of the pea, and twenty feather quilts on top of the mattresses.

The princess was to sleep there that night. In the morning they asked her how she had slept. "Oh, terribly!" said the princess. "I hardly closed my eyes all night. Heaven knows what was in that bed! I was lying on something hard, and now I'm black and blue all over. It was simply dreadful!"

Then they knew that she was a real princess, because she had felt the pea through twenty mattresses and twenty feather quilts. Nobody but a real princess could be so sensitive.

So the prince married her, for now he knew he had found a real princess. And the pea was put in the museum, where it can still be seen, if no one has taken it.

There, that is a true story. And tonight, when you get into bed, check whether there's a pea underneath. If there isn't, you can sleep soundly!