Hans Christian Andersens Fairy Tales | Page 7

senses!" said the Princess, and walked on, but when she had
gone a little way, she stopped again. "One must encourage art," said she, "I am the
Emperor's daughter. Tell him he shall, as on yesterday, have ten kisses from me, and may
take the rest from the ladies of the court."
"Oh--but we should not like that at all!" said they. "What are you muttering?" asked the
Princess. "If I can kiss him, surely you can. Remember that you owe everything to me."
So the ladies were obliged to go to him again.
"A hundred kisses from the Princess," said he, "or else let everyone keep his own!"
"Stand round!" said she; and all the ladies stood round her whilst the kissing was going
on.
"What can be the reason for such a crowd close by the pigsty?" said the Emperor, who
happened just then to step out on the balcony; he rubbed his eyes, and put on his
spectacles. "They are the ladies of the court; I must go down and see what they are
about!" So he pulled up his slippers at the heel, for he had trodden them down.
As soon as he had got into the court-yard, he moved very softly, and the ladies were so
much engrossed with counting the kisses, that all might go on fairly, that they did not
perceive the Emperor. He rose on his tiptoes.
"What is all this?" said he, when he saw what was going on, and he boxed the Princess's
ears with his slipper, just as the swineherd was taking the eighty-sixth kiss.
"March out!" said the Emperor, for he was very angry; and both Princess and swineherd
were thrust out of the city.

The Princess now stood and wept, the swineherd scolded, and the rain poured down.
"Alas! Unhappy creature that I am!" said the Princess. "If I had but married the handsome
young Prince! Ah! how unfortunate I am!"
And the swineherd went behind a tree, washed the black and brown color from his face,
threw off his dirty clothes, and stepped forth in his princely robes; he looked so noble that
the Princess could not help bowing before him.
"I am come to despise thee," said he. "Thou would'st not have an honorable Prince! Thou
could'st not prize the rose and the nightingale, but thou wast ready to kiss the swineherd
for the sake of a trumpery plaything. Thou art rightly served."
He then went back to his own little kingdom, and shut the door of his palace in her face.
Now she might well sing,
"Ach! du lieber Augustin, Alles ist weg, weg, weg!"

THE REAL PRINCESS
There was once a Prince who wished 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 for his wife.
One evening a fearful tempest arose, it thundered and lightened, and the rain poured
down from the sky in torrents: besides, it was as dark as pitch. All at once there was
heard a violent knocking at the door, and the old King, the Prince's father, went out
himself to open it.
It was a Princess who was standing outside the door. What with the rain and the wind,
she was in a sad condition; the water trickled down from her hair, and her clothes clung
to her body. She said she was a real Princess.
"Ah! we shall soon see that!" thought the old Queen-mother; however, she said not a
word of what she was going to do; but went quietly into the bedroom, took all the
bed-clothes off the bed, and put three little peas on the bedstead. She then laid twenty
mattresses one upon another over the three peas, and put twenty feather beds over the
mattresses.
Upon this bed the Princess was to pass the night.
The next morning she was asked how she had slept. "Oh, very badly indeed!" she replied.
"I have scarcely closed my eyes the whole night through. I do not know what was in my
bed, but I had something hard under me, and am all over black and blue. It has hurt me so

much!"
Now it was plain that the lady must be a real Princess, since she had been able to feel the
three little peas through the twenty mattresses and twenty feather beds. None but a real
Princess could have