Once there was a prince who wanted to marry a real princess. He travelled all over the world to find one. He met many princesses, but there was always something not quite right, and he could never be sure they were real. So he came home again, sad and alone.
One stormy night there was a knock at the castle door. The old queen went to open it. Outside stood a young woman, wet from the rain, with water running from her hair and shoes. "I am a real princess," she said.
"We shall see about that," thought the old queen, but she said nothing. She went quietly to the guest bedroom. She took all the blankets off the bed and placed one small, hard pea on the wood. Then she piled twenty soft mattresses on top of the pea, and twenty warm blankets on top of those.
The young woman slept there all night. In the morning the queen asked, "Did you sleep well?" "Oh, very badly!" said the young woman. "There was something hard in the bed. I could not sleep at all, and now I have marks all over me. It was terrible!"
Now the queen knew the truth. Only a real princess could feel one little pea through twenty mattresses and twenty blankets. Her skin was that soft and fine. The prince was very happy, for now he had found a real princess at last. They were married, and the little pea was placed in a museum, where you may see it to this day.
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