The Story
Once upon a time, in a kingdom that sat between the mountains and the sea, there lived a prince who had traveled to every corner of the known world in search of a real princess to marry. He had met many who called themselves princesses — some were beautiful, some were clever, some were gracious and accomplished — but always, when he looked closely enough, something was not quite right. He could never say with certainty: yes, here is a real princess.
He came home at last, sad and weary, for he longed so deeply for a true companion. His parents, the king and queen, were sorry to see him so low-spirited, but they could not help him. The rain poured down outside the palace windows and the wind rattled the shutters, and the whole court felt the cheerlessness of it.
Then one stormy night, just as the royal family had settled before the fire and the clocks had struck ten, there came a tremendous knocking at the city gate. The king himself went down to see who was there.
Outside stood a young woman. She was drenched from head to toe — water streamed from her hair, ran down her cheeks, and poured from the hem of her gown in rivulets. Her shoes squelched with every movement. Her traveling cloak clung to her like a second skin. And yet she stood at the gate with perfect composure and announced, in a clear voice: "I am a princess, and I beg shelter from the storm."
The king brought her inside and she was given dry clothes and a seat by the fire. The prince watched her from across the room and felt his heart stir. She was lovely and spoke with quiet intelligence, and there was something about the way she held herself — even soaking wet, even exhausted — that impressed him greatly.
But the old queen said nothing. She excused herself, went upstairs to the guest bedchamber, and set about arranging the bed herself. She removed every mattress and every feather quilt and set them aside. Then she placed one single pea — one small, round, ordinary dried green pea — on the base of the bed. On top of the pea she stacked twenty mattresses. On top of the twenty mattresses she stacked twenty feather quilts. The bed, when she had finished, nearly touched the ceiling.
The young woman was shown to this extraordinary bed and helped up the steep climb to the top. Good nights were said. The palace settled into sleep.
In the morning, the queen came to the young woman's room and asked: "How did you sleep, my dear?"
The young woman looked at her with tired but honest eyes. "I am sorry to say — not very well at all. I scarcely closed my eyes all night. There was something in the bed — something small and hard — that pressed against me dreadfully. I am black and blue all over, it was so uncomfortable. I cannot imagine what it was."
The queen smiled and turned to find her son.
For only a real princess — with genuine royal sensitivity — could feel a single pea through twenty mattresses and twenty feather quilts. That was the proof, quite beyond any doubt, that here at last was a real princess.
The prince asked her to marry him that very day. The pea was placed in a glass cabinet in the royal museum, where it can still be seen to this day, provided no one has taken it.
And they lived happily ever after.