It was a princess who stood outside. But O dear, what a state she was in
from the rain and bad weather! The water dropped from her hair and
clothes, it ran in at the tips of her shoes and out at the heels; yet
she insisted she was a real princess.
"Very well," thought the old queen; "that we shall presently see." She
said nothing, but went into the bedchamber and took off all the bedding,
then laid a pea on the sacking of the bedstead. Having done this, she
took twenty mattresses and laid them upon the pea and placed twenty
eider-down beds on top of the mattresses.
The princess lay upon this bed all the night. In the morning she was
asked how she had slept.

"Oh, most miserably!" she said. "I scarcely closed my eyes the whole
night through. I cannot think what there could have been in the bed. I
lay upon something so hard that I am quite black and blue all over. It
is dreadful!"
It was now quite evident that she was a real princess, since through
twenty mattresses and twenty eider-down beds she had felt the pea. None
but a real princess could have such delicate feeling.
So the prince took her for his wife, for he knew that in her he had
found a true princess. And the pea was preserved in the cabinet of
curiosities, where it is still to be seen unless some one has stolen it.
And this, mind you, is a real story.
(The end.)

上面这个故事，中文一般译为《豌豆公主》，很多人应该会觉得熟悉。故事很短，小时候读来只觉得有趣，却总不解为何故事中的办法就能试出真正的公主。当然后来慢慢有些懂了。而现在读来，仍然会有感悟，不知您读后是否也有同感？

学习

接下来这个故事有点长，应该也不像上一篇那样广为人知，但我觉得情节还是很有意思的，阅读难度也不大。希望能有人坚持把它读完。

THE PEA BLOSSOM
By Hans Christian Andersen
THERE were once five peas in one shell; they were green, and the shell
was green, and so they believed that the whole world must be green also,
which was a very natural conclusion.
The shell grew, and the peas grew; and as they grew they arranged
themselves all in a row. The sun shone without and warmed the shell, and
the rain made it clear and transparent; it looked mild and agreeable in
broad daylight and dark at night, just as it should. And the peas, as
they sat there, grew bigger and bigger, and more thoughtful as they
mused, for they felt there must be something for them to do.

"Are we to sit here forever?" asked one. "Shall we not become hard,
waiting here so long? It seems to me there must be something outside; I
feel sure of it."
Weeks passed by; the peas became yellow, and the shell became yellow.
"All the world is turning yellow, I suppose," said they--and perhaps
they were right.
Suddenly they felt a pull at the shell. It was torn off and held in
human hands; then it was slipped into the pocket of a jacket, together
with other full pods.
"Now we shall soon be let out," said one, and that was just what they
all wanted.
"I should like to know which of us will travel farthest," said the
smallest of the five; "and we shall soon see."
"What is to happen will happen," said the largest pea.

"Crack!" went the shell, and the five peas rolled out into the bright sunshine.
There they lay in a child's hand. A little boy was holding them tightly. He said
they were fine peas for his pea-shooter, and immediately he put one in and
shot it out.
"Now I am flying out into the wide world," said the pea. "Catch me if you can."
And he was gone in a moment.
"I intend to fly straight to the sun," said the second. "That is a shell that will
suit me exactly, for it lets itself be seen." And away he went.
"We will go to sleep wherever we find ourselves," said the next two; "we shall
still be rolling onwards." And they did fall to the floor and roll about, but they
got into the pea-shooter for all that. "We will go farthest of any," said they.
"What is to happen will happen," exclaimed the last one, as he was shot out of
the pea-shooter. Up he flew against an old board under a garret window and
fell into a little crevice which was almost filled with moss and soft earth.
The moss closed itself about him, and there he lay--a captive indeed, but not
unnoticed by God.
"What is to happen will happen," said he to himself.

Within the little garret lived a poor woman, who went out to clean stoves, chop wood into
small pieces, and do other hard work, for she was both strong and industrious. Yet she
remained always poor, and at home in the garret lay her only daughter, not quite grown up
and very delicate and weak. For a whole year she had kept her bed, and it seemed
as if she could neither die nor get well.
"She is going to her little sister," said the woman. "I had only the two children, and it was not
an easy thing to support them; but the good God provided for one of them by taking her
home to himself. The other was left to me, but I suppose they are not to be separated,
and my sick girl will soon go to her sister in heaven."
All day long the sick girl lay quietly and patiently, while her mother went out to earn money.

Spring came, and early one morning the sun shone through the little window and threw his
rays mildly and pleasantly over the floor of the room. Just as the mother was going to her
work, the sick girl fixed her gaze on the lowest pane of the window. "Mother," she exclaimed,
"what can that little green thing be that peeps in at the window? It is moving in the wind."
The mother stepped to the window and half opened it. "Oh!" she said, "there is actually a
little pea that has taken root and is putting out its green leaves. How could it have got
into this crack? Well, now, here is a little garden for you to amuse yourself with." So the
bed of the sick girl was drawn nearer to the window, that she might see the budding plant;
and the mother went forth to her work.
"Mother, I believe I shall get well," said the sick child in the evening. "The sun has shone in
here so bright and warm to-day, and the little pea is growing so fast, that I feel better,
too, and think I shall get up and go out into the warm sunshine again."

"God grant it!" said the mother, but she did not believe it would be so. She took a little
stick and propped up the green plant which had given her daughter such pleasure, so
that it might not be broken by the winds. She tied the piece of string to the window-sill
and to the upper part of the frame, so that the pea tendrils might have something to
twine round.And the plant shot up so fast that one could almost see it grow from day
to day.
"A flower is really coming," said the mother one morning. At last she was beginning to
let herself hope that her little sick daughter might indeed recover. She remembered that
for some time the child had spoken more cheerfully, and that during the last few days
she had raised herself in bed in the morning to look with sparkling eyes at her little
garden which contained but a single pea plant.
A week later the invalid sat up by the open window a whole hour, feeling quite happy in
the warm sunshine, while outside grew the little plant, and on it a pink pea blossom in
full bloom. The little maiden bent down and gently kissed the delicate leaves. This day
was like a festival to her.

m～

TING!!!哥最喜欢这种人多的帖子，你说是不是

这个适不适合早上朗诵?