cyberstories

The Princess & The Pea

Once upon a time there was a prince

who wanted to marry a real princess.

He traveled around the whole world

in search of his real princess, but

never found her. There was always

something wrong with the princesses

he found. None were to his taste.

They simply weren't real princesses.

The prince returned home very sad

and weary, for he had set his heart

on marrying a real princess.

One evening a storm settled over the
land. Lightning flashed and thunder
roared. Rain came down by the bucket
When the storm raged at it's worst,
someone knocked on the castle gate
and the king himself went to open it.

On the other side of the gate

stood a wet and ragged princess.

Water ran down her hair and mud

caked her sopping clothes. It

flowed in through the heels of her

shoes and out through the toes.

She said she was a princess and

would like to get warm.

"We shall see if indeed she is

a princess," thought the queen without

uttering a word. She hurried off to

the guest room and took all the

bedclothes off the bed. Then on

the bare bedstead she put a tiny

pea. On top of this pea she piled

twenty mattresses and twenty

feather quilts. That was to be the

bed upon which the princess would

sleep.

The next morning a servant asked
her how she had slept. She
replied, "Oh, just wretchedly!
I did not close my eyes even once the
whole night through. God knows what
was in that bed turning me
black and blue!"

Now everyone knew that she was
certainly a real princess, since she
had felt the little pea through all
the twenty mattresses and twenty
feather quilts. Only a real princess
would be so sensitive!

The happy prince married her.
The pea was put on exhibition at the
royal museum where you can go see it,
if it hasn't been stolen.

NEXT STORY..THUMBELINA

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