Hans Christian Andersen

Once upon a time there was a prince who wanted to marry a princess; but she would have to be a real princess. He travelled all over the world trying to find one, but he couldn't find what he wanted anywhere. There were plenty of princesses, but whether they were real princesses, he found it difficult to tell. There was always something that didn't seem quite right. So at last he came home again and was quite sad, because he wished so much to have a real princess for his wife.

One evening a terrible storm arose; it thundered and lightened, and the rain poured down in torrents. Suddenly a knocking was heard at the door, and the old king, the prince's father went to open it.

It was a princess standing outside the door. And the wind and the rain had made her look a sorry sight. Water trickled down from her hair and clothes; down into the toes of her shoes and out again at the heels. But she said that she was a real princess.

'Well, we’ll soon find that out,' thought the old queen. She said nothing, but went into the bedroom; took all the bedclothes off the bed and laid a pea at the bottom; then she took twenty mattresses and laid them on top of the pea, then she put twenty eider downs on top of the mattresses.

This was the bed on which the princess was to sleet that night. In the morning she was asked how she had slept.

'Oh, very badly!” said princess. 'I have hardly closed my eyes all night. Goodness knew what was in my bed, but I was lying on something hard, and I am black and blue all over. It's quite dreadful!'

Now everyone saw that she was a real princess because she had felt the pea through the twenty mattresses and the twenty eider downs. Only a real princess could be as sensitive and delicate as that.

So the prince took her for his wife. Now he knew that he had a real princess. The pea was put in the museum, where it can still be seen, if no one has stolen it.

And this, is a true story.