Little
Prince Table of Contents
When one wishes to play the wit, he sometimes wanders a little
from the truth.
I
have not been altogether honest in what I have told you about
the lamplighters. And I realize that I run the risk of giving
a false idea of our planet to those who do not know it.
Men
occupy a very small place upon the Earth. If the two billion inhabitants
who people its surface were all to stand upright and somewhat
crowded together, as they do for some big public assembly, they
could easily be put into one public square twenty miles long and
twenty miles wide. All humanity could be piled up on a small Pacific
islet.
The
grown-ups, to be sure, will not believe you when you tell them
that. They imagine that they fill a great deal of space. They
fancy themselves as important as the baobabs. You should advise
them, then, to make their own calculations. They
adore figures, and that will please them. But do not waste your
time on this extra task. It is unnecessary. You have, I know,
confidence in me.
When
the little prince arrived on the Earth, he was very much surprised
not to see any people. He was beginning to be afraid he had come
to the wrong planet, when a coil of gold, the color of the moonlight,
flashed across the sand.
"Good
evening," said the little prince courteously.
"Good
evening," said the snake.
"What
planet is this on which I have come down?" asked the little prince.
"This
is the Earth; this is Africa," the snake answered.
"Ah!
Then there are no people on the Earth?"
"This
is the desert. There are no people in the desert. The Earth is
large," said the snake.
The
little prince sat down on a stone, and raised his eyes toward
the sky.
"I
wonder," he said, "whether the stars are set alight in heaven
so that one day each one of us may find his own again... Look
at my planet. It is right there above us. But how far away it
is!"
"It
is beautiful," the snake said. "What has brought you here?"
"I
have been having some trouble with a flower," said the little
prince. "Ah!" said the snake. And they were both silent.
"Where
are the men?" the little prince at last took up the conversation
again. "It is a little lonely in the desert..."
"It
is also lonely among men," the snake said. The little prince gazed
at him for a long time.
"You
are a funny animal," he said at last. "You are no thicker than
a finger..."
"But
I am more powerful than the finger of a king," said the snake.
The
little prince smiled. "You are not very powerful. You haven't
even any feet. You cannot even travel..."
"I
can carry you farther than any ship could take you," said the
snake. He twined himself around the little prince's ankle, like
a golden bracelet.
"Whomever
I touch, I send back to the earth from whence he came," the snake
spoke again. "But you are innocent and true, and you come from
a star..."
The
little prince made no reply. "You move me to pity, you are so
weak on this Earth made of granite," the snake said. "I can help
you, some day, if you grow too homesick for your own planet. I
can..."
"Oh! I understand you very well," said the little prince. "But
why do you always speak in riddles?"
"I
solve them all," said the snake. And they were both silent.
Go
to Chapter 18
