Little
Prince Table of Contents
It took me a long time to learn where he came from. The little
prince, who asked me so many questions, never seemed to hear the
ones I asked him. It was from words dropped by chance that, little
by little, everything was revealed to me.
The
first time he saw my airplane, for instance (I shall not draw
my airplane; that would be much too complicated for me), he asked
me: "What is that object?"
"That
is not an object. It flies. It is an airplane. It is my airplane."
And I was proud to have him learn that I could fly. He cried out,
then: "What! You dropped down from the sky?"
"Yes,"
I answered, modestly.
"Oh!
That is funny!" And the little prince broke into a lovely peal
of laughter, which irritated me very much. I like my misfortunes
to be taken seriously.
Then
he added: "So you, too, come from the sky! Which is your planet?"
At that moment I caught a gleam of light in the impenetrable mystery
of his presence; and I demanded, abruptly: "Do you come from another
planet?" But he did not reply. He tossed his head gently, without
taking his eyes from my plane: "It is true that on that you can't
have come from very far away..." And he sank into a reverie, which
lasted a long time. Then, taking my sheep out of his pocket, he
buried himself in the contemplation of his treasure.
You
can imagine how my curiosity was aroused by this half-confidence
about the "other planets." I made a great effort, therefore, to
find out more on this subject.
"My
little man, where do you come from? What is this 'where I live,'
of which you speak? Where do you want to take your sheep?"
After
a reflective silence he answered: "The thing that is so good about
the box you have given me is that at night he can use it as his
house."
"That is so. And if you are good I will give you a string, too,
so that you can tie him during the day, and a post to tie him
to."
But
the little prince seemed shocked by this offer: "Tie him! What
a queer idea!"
"But
if you don't tie him," I said, "he will wander off somewhere,
and get lost."
My
friend broke into another peal of laughter: "But where do you
think he would go?" "Anywhere. Straight ahead of him."
Then
the little prince said, earnestly: "That doesn't matter. Where
I live, everything is so small!" And, with perhaps a hint of sadness,
he added: "Straight ahead of him, nobody can go very far..."
Go
to Chapter 4
