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The Princess and the Pea
A fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen
There once was a prince who was looking for his very own
princess. He traveled many lands to find just the right one. On
his journey, he met many princesses, but not one of them was
how he imagined his future wife to be. Sad and disappointed,
he returned to his castle alone.
One evening, during a raging thunder storm, someone knocked
on the palace door. The king ordered the door to be opened,
and there stood a girl. Her clothing and hair were dripping
wet and horribly mussed from the wind and rain. But the girl
insisted that she was an honest to goodness princess.
To find out if this was true, the queen prepared a very special
bed in which the girl should sleep.
The queen laid a pea on the bottom of the bed, stacking many
mattresses on top of it. On each mattress she also laid a soft,
downy comforter. The girl was to sleep on top of this tower
of bedding. If she was a true princess, the queen thought to
herself, she would notice that something was hidden in the
bed.
The next morning, the girl was asked how she had slept.
“Terribly!” she answered. “I could not sleep at all
because there was something very, very hard
hidden in my bed.” Now the royal family knew
that this girl was truly a princess. The prince
asked for the princess’s hand and the whole
kingdom rejoiced at their wonderfully beautiful
wedding.