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top of her shoes and out at the heel, but she said that she was a real
princess.
'Well we shall soon see if that is true,' thought the old Queen, but
she said nothing. She went into the bedroom, took all the bedclothes off
and laid a pea on the bedstead: then she took twenty mattresses and piled
them on the top of the pea, and then twenty feather beds on the top of the
mattresses. This was where the princess was to sleep that night. In the
morning they asked her how she had slept.
'Oh terribly badly!' said the princess. 'I have hardly closed my eyes
the whole night! Heaven knows what was in the bed. I seemed to be lying
upon some hard thing, and my whole body is black and blue this morning. It
is terrible!'
They saw at once that she must be a real princess when she had felt the
pea through twenty mattresses and twenty feather beds. Nobody but a real
princess could have such a delicate skin.
So the prince took her to be his wife, for now he was sure that he had
found a real princess, and the pea was put into the Museum, where it may
still be seen if no one has stolen it.
Now this is a true story.
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