T he P r incess

and the Pea

Retold by Debbie Croft
Illustrated by Richard Hoit
T he Pr incess
and the Pea
A fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen
Retold by Debbie Croft
Illustrated by Richard Hoit
U.S. Edition © 2020 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company
125 High Street
Boston, MA 02110
www.hmhco.com

Text © 2020 Cengage Learning Australia Pty Limited

Illustrations © 2020 Cengage Learning Australia Pty Limited
Originally published in Australia by Cengage Learning Australia

All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner
unless such copying is expressly permitted by federal copyright law. Requests for permission to make copies of any part of the work should
be addressed to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, Attn: Contracts, Copyrights, and Licensing, 9400 Southpark Center Loop,
Orlando, Florida 32819.

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Text: Debbie Croft

Series consultant: Annette Smith
Publishing editor: Simone Calderwood
Editor: Rachel Day
Project editor: Annabel Smith
Designer: Chelsea Tremain
Series designers: James Lowe and Karen Mayo
Illustrations: Richard Hoit
Production controller: Renee Tome
Printed in China by 1010 Printing International Ltd

The Princess and the Pea

ISBN 978 1 32 853905 2
Once upon a time, there was a Pr ince.
He wanted to marr y a pr incess,
but she had to be a real pr incess.

The Pr ince went from

one countr y to another,
looking for a real pr incess to mar r y.
He tr ied ver y hard.

He looked ever ywhere,
but he couldn’t f ind one.

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The Pr ince was sad.
He came home again,
but he still wanted to mar r y a real pr incess.

“There are lots of pr incesses,”

he said to his parents, the King and Queen.
“But I don’t know if they are real pr incesses.
Ever y time I meet one,
there is always something about her
that is not as it should be.”

“You should marry a real princess,”

said the Queen sharply.

The King smiled at the Pr ince and said,

“I think that a real pr incess
would want to mar r y a pr ince like you.”

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That night, there was a wild storm.
Lightning flashed across the sky,
and thunder rattled the windows
at the palace.
Rain was falling heavily.

Suddenly, the bell

at the palace gate rang loudly.
The King rushed out to unlock the gate.

To his surpr ise,
he saw a pr incess standing there!
She was shiver ing in the cold.
There was water running off her coat
and dr ipping down into her shoes.

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“Please may I come inside?”
the Pr incess asked the King.
“It’s ver y cold out here,
and I’m wet from the storm.”

“Yes,” the King said.

“Quickly, come in out of the rain.”

“I wonder if this girl

is a real pr incess?”
the King said to himself.
“Maybe the Queen will know!”

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The King took the Princess
into the palace
and sat her down by the f ire,
where she would be warm.

He looked at the Queen,

but she didn’t say anything.
She just smiled.
The Queen knew how to tell
if this girl was a real pr incess!

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The Queen tiptoed upstairs to a bedroom.
She put a tiny pea on the bottom of the bed
where the Pr incess was going to sleep
that night.

Then, she lifted twenty thick mattresses

and put them carefully on top of the pea.
Next, she placed twenty of her best quilts
on top of the mattresses.

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Later that night, the Pr incess,
who was ver y tired, went off to bed.
“Good night,” the Pr incess said
to the King and Queen,
“and thank you so much for letting me stay
in your lovely palace.”
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The next morning at breakfast,
the Queen asked the Pr incess
how she had slept.

“Not ver y well,” said the Pr incess sadly.

“I felt as if I was lying on something ver y hard,
and now my body is black and blue!”

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The Queen was ver y happy to hear this news.
“No one but a real pr incess would feel the pea
I placed under all those mattresses!”
she said with a smile.
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All of a sudden, the rain stopped,
and the wind blew the storm clouds away.

The next year, the Pr ince marr ied the Pr incess,

and they lived happily ever after in the palace.

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 Fairy Tale
Level J • 501 Words

The Prince wants to marry a princess. But he can’t

find a real princess! One stormy night, someone
rings the bell at the palace gate. Could this be a
real princess?

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