The Princess and the Pea



The Princess and the Pea

Once upon a time, there lived an old king and queen who were very wise rulers. Their son, the prince, was very kind and good. When the old king died, the queen decreed that the prince should take his place and become the new king. But before the prince could become king, he had to find a princess to marry so he would have someone to help him run the kingdom.

“We must find a princess for you to marry who is sweet and kind,” said the prince’s mother the queen. And so she sent messengers forth to all the surrounding kingdoms asking them to send any princesses who were old enough to marry.

Before long, many princesses came to the kingdom to see if they could marry the prince. Each day the prince and the queen would interview a different princess, trying to find someone who was good and kind. Many of the princesses were very beautiful and many were very smart.

“How shall we ever know who to choose?” said the prince. “All these princesses seem very nice to me.”

“There is only one way to know a true princess, one with a heart of gold” said his mother.

“How is that?” asked the prince.

“Come, I will show you,” said the queen. She led her son to a beautiful bedroom which contained a huge bed. One the bed were piled 20 mattresses. The bed was so high it nearly reached the ceiling.

“Observe,” said the queen. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a tiny pea. The pea was bright green and dry and very hard. Then she lifted up the edge of the bottom mattress and rolled the pea underneath it.

“You see,” said the queen. “We will ask each princess to spend a night sleeping on this bed. If the princess cares only for herself, she will sleep soundly all night long and never feel the pea. But if the princess has a heart of gold, the pea will disturb her sleep and she will awake and begin to worry about all the people in the world who need help.”

“Wonderful,” said the prince.

And so they called in the first princess. Now this princess had the most beautiful hair in all the world. She climbed very carefully to the top of the bed and lay very still so as not to disturb her lovely hair.

“Good night,” said the princess.

“Good night,” said the prince and the queen.

The next day the prince asked the princess with the beautiful hair how she had slept.

“Very well,” said the princess. “I slept soundly the whole night.”

Too bad, thought the prince. She is not a true princess.

The next night the prince and the queen brought in a princess who had the most beautiful face in all the world. She climbed very carefully to the top of the bed and lay very still.

“Good night,” said the princess.

“Good night,” said the prince and the queen.

The next day they asked the princess with the beautiful face how she had slept.

“Very well,” said the princess. “I slept soundly the whole night.”

Too bad, thought the prince. She is not a true princess.

Every night the prince and the queen tried the same test, but each morning the princesses said they had slept very well. None of them ever felt the pea.

“It’s hopeless,” said the prince at last one rainy night. “We will never find a true princess.”

Just then there came a knock at the door. When they opened the door, there in the rain stood a young woman. She was soaked. She had short red hair which was dripping wet.

“Come in and dry out by the fire,” said the prince.

“Thank you” said the young woman. “I was out walking in the woods and got lost and then when it started to rain I got soaked.” Now it happened that this young woman was a princess, but no one knew her.

“Please stay with us for the night,” said the queen.

“Thank you,” said the princess and she smiled.

Since all the other beds were already taken, the prince and the queen led the princess to the room with the 20 mattresses and the pea.

“I hope this will be comfortable for you,” said the prince.

“It looks lovely,” said the princess and she climbed to the top of the mattresses.

“Good night,” said the princess, “and thank you again.”

“Good night,” said the prince and the queen.

The next day they asked the princess how she had slept.

“Oh,” she said. “Not very well, actually. Look, I am black and blue all over. There must have been something under my bed. I couldn’t sleep a wink.”

“At last,” cried the prince. “We have found a true princess.

“One with a heart of gold,” said the queen.

One day later, after everyone had gotten a good night’s sleep, the prince and the princess were married while the queen looked on happily. And from that day forth they devoted all their energy to helping people in their kingdom.

Characters:

Queen

Prince

Princess with beautiful hair

Princess with a beautiful face

Real Princess with short hair

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download