Once upon a time, in a faraway kingdom, there was a prince who wanted to marry a princess. But this prince was very picky. He didn't want to marry just any princess; she had to be beautiful, kind, smart, charming, and, most importantly, very sensitive.
"Sensitive?" the king
exclaimed. "How will you know if she's sensitive until many years have
passed? You don't have time for this, my son."
So, the prince began his difficult
search. He traveled all over the world by boat, on horseback, and on camel. He
crossed deserts, climbed mountains, and explored valleys, looking for the
princess of his dreams. He visited every country, big and small, but he couldn't
find the right princess.
There were many princesses available,
but it was hard to tell if they had all the qualities he wanted. He met many
princesses, but none were quite right. After a long and tiring search, he
returned home sad and discouraged, wondering if he would ever find a real
princess.
The king and queen were almost ready
to give up and let his younger brother take over the kingdom. One evening, as
the sad prince was thinking about his problem, a terrible storm started. There
was loud thunder, bright lightning, and heavy rain with hailstones as big as
goose eggs.
The rain poured down heavily.
Suddenly, there was a loud knock at the castle gate. When the old king opened
the gate, he found a wet but beautiful young woman standing there.
"Hello, sir," the young
woman said. "I am a princess from a nearby kingdom. I got caught in this
storm and my horse ran away. I can't go home until the storm ends. Could I stay
here for a while?"
The king was doubtful. How could she
be a princess? She looked so miserable. Her hair and clothes were soaked, and
water was dripping from her shoes.
"How can I be sure you're a
princess and not someone pretending to be one?" asked the king.
"You'll have to trust your heart
and decide for yourself if I'm a real princess," she replied with a wet
smile.
The king wasn't sure, but he found
her charming and didn't want to leave her out in the storm. So, he invited her
in to dry off and warm up by the fireplace.
Inside, the king introduced her to
the queen and the prince. The prince, who was very skeptical, looked at her and
thought she couldn't be a princess because she was so wet and bedraggled. No
princess he had met during his travels looked like this.
The queen was also doubtful.
"We'll soon see if she's a real princess," she thought. She told the
prince her plan to test the girl with a tiny green pea. The prince thought it
was a good idea.
The queen prepared a spare bed for
the young woman. She took off all the bedding and placed a pea at the very
bottom. Then she piled twenty mattresses and twenty feather beds on top.
The next morning, they asked the
young woman how she had slept.
"Oh, very badly!" she
complained. "I don't want to sound ungrateful, but I couldn't sleep at
all. There was something hard in the bed, and now I'm covered in bruises. It
was terrible!"
With her words, they knew she was a
real princess. Only a true princess could feel a tiny pea through all those
mattresses and feather beds. They all cheered with joy.
"Hooray!" shouted the king.
"You are the sensitive princess our son has been looking for all these
years. Now you and the prince can marry, and the queen and I can retire!"
So, the prince and the princess got married in a grand celebration. The palace kitchen prepared a huge wedding feast with many dishes made from peas: split-pea soup, creamed peas, stir-fried snow peas, and even sweet pea ice cream. And they all lived happily ever after.
Source of pictures: 1
No comments:
Post a Comment