The princess of the pea
Once upon a time, a prince wanted to marry a princess that was really a princess. In his search he traveled all over the world, but there was always someone but. There were many princesses, but he never managed to make sure that they were the real thing; Each time he found something that seemed to be suspicious. So he returned to his house very sad, because he was determined to find an authentic princess.
One afternoon a terrible storm erupted; bolts of lightning and thunder occurred without interruption and it rained cats and dogs. It was a frightening time. During the storm, they called at the door of the city, and the old King went to open up..
A princess stood at the door; But blessed God! what the rain and the bad weather had done to her! The water dripped from her hair and clothing, and got inside her shoes and left by the heels; But she affirmed that she was a true princess.
Soon we will know it, the old Queen thought, and, without saying a word, she went to the bedroom, she raised the bed and she put a pea on the metallic cloth; Next she piled up twenty mattresses, and on these, a similar number of down-filled quilts.
The princess should have slept in this bed.
In the morning they asked her how she had rested .
- Oh, very badly! - she exclaimed -. I have not closed an eye all night. God knows what would be in the bed! It was something so hard, because my body is black-and-blue ! Horrible!
Then they saw that she was really a princess, since, in spite of the twenty mattresses and the twenty eiderdowns, she had felt the pea. Nobody but a true princess could be so sensitive.
The prince took her for a handcuff, because he had become convinced that he had married a full-fledged princess; And the pea went into the museum, where it can still be seen, if nobody has taken it for himself.