The Princess and the Pea
In a land of kings and castles, a wise king yearns for a true princess for his son. But how can they tell who’s real? A royal test awaits!
The Princess and the Pea Story
In a land far, far away, there was a magnificent and powerful king that lived in a big castle with its son and mother.
The prince was very smart, polite and well-dressed.
But the king of our story was sad.
He wished that his son could marry a beautiful princess. But he could never find the princess.
Of course, in the kingdom of the king there lived very beautiful and well-dressed girls who all claimed to be princesses.
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The prince searched a lot on his father’s orders and met and talked with all the maidens. But in the end he returned to the castle empty-handed and sad.
The prince told his father that it was impossible to know whether these maidens were really princes or not.
The wise king smiled and said:
My son, you must be patient. You will understand when the time comes.
The prince smiled and returned to his room.
That night the rain came with a big storm.
The thunder began to blow with a great noise and the rain began to pour with a sound like the hooves of thousands of horses charging into the battlefield.
Suddenly there was a sound at the castle door. Someone was behind the castle door. The king put on his cloak and opened the door. Behind the door was a young lady who was standing wet and cold.
The young girl said: I am a real princess. I need dry clothes and a place to sleep. can i stay in your castle for tonight
The king allowed and invited them inside the castle.
The king told the queen mother that the maiden said she was a real princess.
The queen mother said nothing. And he thought to herself:
We will soon find out if she is a real princess or not!
Then he gave the girl a clean and dry dress and said to her:
Wear this dress and I will prepare your bedroom.
The Queen Mother began to prepare the bedchamber, but in a very strange way.
First, he removed the quilt, sheets and mattress from the bed. Then she put a pea seed on the bed. And after that she put twenty layers of mats on the peas and placed a quilt between the mats.
After that he threw the sheets and quilt on the bed and told the princess that your bed is ready.
The height of the bed, with its twenty mattresses and quilts, was so high that the princess had to climb a ladder to get on it and sleep.
The prince went to the top of the bed. She pulled the quilt over herself. She blew out the candle and slept.
The next morning, while having breakfast, the queen mother turned to the princess and asked:
My dear princess, did you sleep well last night?
Mmm, no, it wasn’t quite right, said the princess, a little embarrassed. And she continued: I mean, I’m very grateful for your kindness and hospitality, but there seemed to be something hard and uncomfortable under my mattress. So that I could not sleep last night.
The queen mother was surprised and said:
Really?!
And he turned to the king and the prince and said:
I think we have finally found the real princess. Because no one but a real princess has such a delicate and precise sense to distinguish a single pea from twenty mattresses and twenty of my best quilts. You should get married immediately!
The prince was very happy.
He turned to the princess and said:
Dear princess, will you do me this great honor and marry me?
The princess was very embarrassed and blushed. He waited a few moments for the morsel in his mouth to go down his throat. Then he said:
I have a condition.
The prince said:
I accept whatever it is.
The princess smiled and said to the prince:
Do you promise me that from now on every pea that enters the castle will be for eating and not for sleeping?
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The prince blushed with embarrassment and looked at her and said with a smile:
Of course, I promise.
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