World Children's Story Classics: Family Stories

Chapter 38 The Princess on the Pea
Once upon a time there was a prince who wanted to marry a real princess.One night, a girl knocked on the door of the palace and said she was a real princess.In order to test whether she is a real princess, the old queen came up with an idea.She had her servants put a pea on the bed, and spread twenty mattresses and twenty eiderdown quilts on it, and the princess slept on them.The next morning the princess complained that she had not had a good rest the night before, because something hard on the bed made her whole body ache.Everyone knew right away that this was a real princess, because no one else had such delicate skin.So the prince chose the princess as his wife, and the two lived happily together.

(End of this chapter)