The Princess and the Pea
by  Hans Christian Andersen (1835)

NCE upon a time there was a prince who wanted to marry a princess. But she would have to be a real princess. 

The prince traveled all over the world to find a princess to himself.. But he couldn't get, what he wanted. There were princesses. But it was difficult to find out whether they were real ones or not. There was always something about them. Something that was not as it should be.

"She is not a real princess, she is a boor." thought the prince after every woman he met.

So, he came home alone. He was sad and desperate. He wanted to marry a real princess and have children with her.

On one evening a terrible storm came on. There was thunder and lightning. The rain poured down in torrents.

Suddenly. A knocking was heard at the city gate. The old King went to open it.

There was a girl standing out there, in front of the gate. When king opened the gate, the girl introduced herself "I am a princess".

But, good gracious!

What a sight the rain and the wind had made her look. The water ran down from her hair and clothes. It ran down into the toes of her shoes and out again at the heels. Her hair was shaggy. And as well as the water, her make up ran down her beautiful face. She looked awful.

And yet she said, that she was a real princess.

The King said "Come in girl".
The girl noticed the crown, and answered humbly "Your highness". After that she stepped in.

The King introduced the girl to the old Queen. He said "We have a visitor, a real princess."

The Queen watched the girl suspiciously , but she said nothing.  “A real princess. Well, we’ll soon find that out,” thought the old Queen.

After the supper. Queen went into the bed-room. She started to make a bed for the girl. She  took all the bedding off the bedstead. She laid a pea on the bottom. Then she took twenty mattresses and laid them on the pea, and then twenty eider-down beds on top of the mattresses. On this the princess had to lie all night.

In the morning the Queen asked the Princess, "How did you slept ?"
“Oh, very badly!” the Princess answered. “I have scarcely closed my eyes all night. Heaven only knows what was in the bed. I was lying on something hard. And now I am black and blue all over my body. It’s horrible!”

"Wow" thought the Queen.

The Queen said to the King. "She is a real princess. Only a princess can sense the pea right through the twenty mattresses and the twenty eider-down beds." 
The King answered. "Nobody but a real princess could be as sensitive as that." 

So. The prince had finally found a real princess to himself. He took her for his wife, and his parents blessed their marriage.

They had many beautiful and healthy children. And the pea was put in the museum, where it may still be seen, if no one has stolen it.

There, that is a true story.