THE REAL PRINCESS
There was once a prince, and he wanted a princess, but then she must be a
real Princess. He travelled right round the world to find one, but
there was always something wrong. There were plenty of princesses, but
whether they were real princesses he had great difficulty in discovering;
there was always something which was not quite right about them. So at last
he had to come home again, and he was very sad because he wanted a real
princess so badly.
One evening there was a terrible storm; it thundered and lightened and
the rain poured down in torrents; indeed it was a fearful night.
In the middle of the storm somebody knocked at the town gate, and the old
King himself went to open it.
It was a princess who stood outside, but she was in a terrible state from
the rain and the storm. The water streamed out of her hair and her clothes;
it ran in at the top of her shoes and out at the heel, but she said that she
was a real princess.
'Well we shall soon see if that is true,' thought the old Queen, but she
said nothing. She went into the bedroom, took all the bedclothes off and
laid a pea on the bedstead: then she took twenty mattresses and piled them
on the top of the pea, and then twenty feather beds on the top of the
mattresses. This was where the princess was to sleep that night. In the
morning they asked her how she had slept.
'Oh terribly badly!' said the princess. 'I have hardly closed my eyes the
whole 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 is
terrible!'
They saw at once that she must be a real princess when she had felt the
pea 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 put into the Museum, where it may
still be seen if no one has stolen it.
Now this is a true story.
THE END.
Stories from Hans Andersen continued on next page...
 
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