The Princess and the Pea
Once upon a time,
there was a prince who wanted to find a princess to marry.
But she would have to be a real princess.
He searched and searched.
He met one princess after another,
but there was always something the matter.
They just weren't real princesses.
So at last he returned home without a wife.
One night there was a terrible storm.
The lightning
flashed,
the thunder roared,
and the rain fell down in buckets.
In the midst of all this noise
and rain,
someone knocked at the palace gate.
The old king himself went to open the gate,
and when he pushed it open,
he found a young woman.
I am a princess.
May I come in?
She asked.
The old king looked at her.
She was dripping wet and looked a terrible sight.
The king did not
quite believe that she was a princess,
but he let her in anyway.
The queen gave her dry clothing and
offered her a bed for the night.
I'll find out if she's a real princess,
the queen said to herself,
and she placed a tiny pea beneath the mattress.
Then she placed twenty mattresses on top of
that and twenty down comforters on top of that.
The girl carefully climbed onto her tall
swaying bed and tried to fall asleep.
The next morning, the queen asked her,
how did you sleep?
I didn't sleep a wink.
Heaven knows what was in that bed.
I feel as though I'd been lying on a rock.
I'm black and blue from head to toe.
The king and queen and the prince were pleased.
At last they had found a real princess.
Otherwise,
she could never have felt that tiny pea
through twenty mattresses and twenty
down comforters.
Only a real princess could be that sensitive.
So there was a royal wedding,
and the prince and princess lived happily ever after.