A selection of self-directed illustrations for The Princess and The Pea.
There once was a prince who wanted to marry a princess—but then she must be a real princess. He travelled all over the world in hopes of finding such a lady, but there was always something wrong.
Princesses he found in plenty, but whether they were real princesses, it was impossible for him to decide. For now one thing, now another, seemed to him not quite right about the ladies.
At last, he returned to his palace quite cast down, because he wished so much to have a real princess in his life.
One evening a terrible storm came on. There was thunder and lightning, and the rain poured down in torrents.
All at once, there was a knocking at the door. A princess was standing outside. What with the rain and the wind, she was in a sad condition; the water trickled down from her hair, into the toes of her shoes and out again at the heels. And yet, she said she was a real princess.
The prince said nothing, but went into the bedroom and put a pea on the bedstead. He then laid twenty mattresses upon one another over the pea, and twenty feather quilts over the mattresses. Upon this bed, the princess was to pass the night.
The next morning, the prince asked the princess how she had slept. 'Oh, very badly indeed!' she replied. 'I do not know what was in my bed, but all over I am black and blue!' The prince now knew that she was a real princess, for none but a real princess could have had such a delicate sense of feeling.
So the prince took her for his wife, for now he knew that he had a real princess. The pea was put in a museum, where it may still be seen, if no one has stolen it. And that, is a true story.