In this lesson we read a short story.
How
to Tell a True Princess
There
was once upon a time a Prince who wanted to marry a Princess, but she
must be a true Princess. So he travelled through the whole world to
find one, but there was always something against each. There were
plenty of Princesses, but he could not find out
if they were true Princesses. In every case there was
some little defect, which showed the genuine article
was not yet found. So he came home again in very low spirits,
for he had wanted very much to have a true Princess. One night there
was a dreadful storm; it thundered and lightened and the rain
streamed down in torrents. It was fearful! There was a
knocking heard at the Palace gate, and the old King went to open it.
There
stood a Princess outside the gate; but oh, in what a sad plight
she was from the rain and the storm! The water was running down from
her hair and her dress into the points of her shoes and out at the
heels again. And yet she said she was a true Princess!
'Well,
we shall soon find that!' thought the old Queen. But she said
nothing, and went into the sleeping-room, took off all the
bed-clothes, and laid a pea on the bottom of the bed.
Then she put twenty mattresses on top of the pea, and twenty
eider-down quilts on the top of the mattresses. And this was the bed
in which the Princess was to sleep.
The
next morning she was asked how she had slept.
'Oh,
very badly!' said the Princess. 'I scarcely closed my eyes all
night! I am sure I don't know what was in the bed. I laid on
something so hard that my whole body is black and blue. It is
dreadful!'
Now
they perceived that she was a true Princess, because she had
felt the pea through the twenty mattresses and the twenty eider-down
quilts.
No
one but a true Princess could be so sensitive.
So
the Prince married her, for now he knew that at last he had got hold
of a true Princess. And the pea was put into the Royal Museum, where
it is still to be seen if no one has stolen it. Now this is a true
story.
[H.C.
Andersen]
Vocabulary:
Plenty
Could
not find out
Case
Genuine
Defect
Low
spirits
Dreadful
Torrents
Plight
Sleeping
room
Bed-clothes
Pea
Scarcely
Perceived
Sensitive
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