The Princess and the Pea

adapted from Hans Christian Andersen

There was once a prince and he wanted a princess. “But she must be a real Princess,” he thought. So he travelled around the world find one. There were many princesses but there was something wrong about them. At last, he had to return home. He was very sad, he wanted a real princess so badly.

One evening, there was a terrible storm. It was heavily and there was thunder and lightning. In the middle of the storm, somebody on the door and the King himself went to open it.

There was a princess at the door. Her hair and her clothes were very wet. But she said she was a real princess.

“We shall see if that is true,” the Queen said to herself. She went to the bedroom, took all the bedsheets off and laid a pea on the bed. Then she took twenty mattresses and put them on of the pea. That was where the princess would sleep that night.

“How did you sleep, dear princess?” they her in the morning.

“Oh, very badly!” she answered. “I couldn't my eyes all night. It seemed that I was lying on something hard. My whole body is aching. It is terrible!”

“She must be a real princess if she could the pea through twenty mattresses,” they said to themselves. "Nobody but a real princess could have such a sensitive skin.

So the prince married her and they put the pea into the Museum. It may still be there no one has stolen it.