THE LITTLE PRINCE By Antoine de Saint-Exupery

MARIBETH OWN SUMMARY

IN THE FASHION OF FAIRY TALES

This story is not actually a children's story, but it is the story of a grown-up who has almost forgotten what is important.

Once upon a time, there was a little prince who lived on a planet that was scarcely any bigger than himself and who had need of a friend. He possessed three volcanoes and a haughty flower.

On the little prince planet, the flowers had always been very simple. They had only one ring of petals. One morning, they would appear in the grass and by night, they would have faded peacefully away. One day, from a seed blown from no one knew where, a new flower had come up. The little prince had watched very closely over this small sprout which was not like any other small sprouts on his planet.

The shrub soon stopped growing and began to get ready to produce a flower. The little prince who was present at the first appearance of a huge bud felt at once that some sort of miraculous apparition must emerge from it.

The flower chose her colors with the greatest care. She dressed herself slowly and adjusted her petals one by one. She did not wish to go out into the world all rumpled. It was only in the full radiance of her beauty that she wished to appear. After working with all pains taking precision, she yawned and said:

" Ah! I am scarcely awake. I beg that you will excuse me. My petals are still disarranged............. "

The little prince could not restrain his admiration.

" Oh! How beautiful you are! "

" Am I not?" the flower responded sweetly. " And I was born at the same moment as the sun...... I think it is time for breakfast. If you would have the kindness to think my needs....... "

The little prince, completely abashed, went to look for a sprinkling can of fresh water. So, he tended the flower.

So, too, the flower began very quickly to torment him with her vanity--- which was, if the truth be known, a little difficult to deal with.

One day, for instance, when she was speaking of her thorns, she said to the little prince:

" Let the tigers come with their claws! "

" There are no tigers on my planet, and anyway, tigers do not eat weeds. "

" I am not a weed," the flower replied sweetly. "Please excuse me..........

I am not all afraid of tigers but I have the horror of draughts. I suppose you wouldn't have a screen for me?

At night, I want you to put me under a glass globe. It is very cold where you live. In the place where I came from----"

She interrupted herself at that point. Embarrassed over having let her caught on the verge of such naive untruth, she coughed two or three times in order to put the little prince in the wrong.

" The screen? "

" I was going to look for it when you spoke to me....... "

So, the little prince, in spite of all the goodwill that was inseparable from his love, had soon come to doubt her. He had taken seriously words which were without importance and it made him very unhappy. And since he was too young to understand anything, he decided to leave his planet and his flower on quest for knowledge.

On the morning of his departure, he put his planet in perfect order. He carefully cleaned out his active volcanoes. They were very convinient for heating his breakfast in the morning. He also had one volcano that was extinct. But he said, " one never knows!", so, he cleaned out the extinct volcano too. On this last morning, all these familiar tasks seemed very precious to him. When he watered the flower for the last time and prepared to place her under the shelter of her glass globe, he realized that he was very close to tears. "Goodbye", he said to the flower.

The flower coughed, but it was not because she had a cold.

" I have been silly. I ask your forgiveness. Try to be happy..... Of course I love you. It is my fault that you have not known it all the while. That is of no importance. But you ---- you have been just foolish as I. Let the glass globe be, I don't want it anymore."

" But the wind---- "

" My cold is not so bad as all that..... The night air will do me good. I am a flower."

" But the animals--------"

" Well, I must endure the presence of two or three caterpillars if I wish to become acquainted with the butterflies. It seems that they are very beautiful. And if not the butterflies----- and the caterpillars----- who will call upon me? You will be far away..... As for the large animals----- I am not all afraid of any of them. I have my claws. You have decided to go away. Now go! "

For she did not want him to see her crying. She was such a proud flower........

For his escape, the little prince took advantage of the migration of a flock of wild birds. He found himself in the neighborhood of the asteriods. He began therefore, by visiting them. In each encounter, the little prince confronts the limitations of the so-called " grown-up " mindset.

The first of them was inhabited by a king. He did not know how the world is simplified for kings. To them, all men are subjects. Since he was tired, the little prince yawned.
" It is contrary to etiquette to yawn in the presence of a king," the monarch said to him. " I forbid you to do so."
" I can't help it. I can't stop myself, thoroughly embarrassed. I have come on a long journey and I have had not sleep," replied the little prince.
" Ah, then," the king said. I order you to yawn. It is years since I have seen anyone yawning. Come now! Yawn again! It is an order."
" That frightens me........ I cannot, anymore......... murmured the little prince.
The king tolerated no disobedience. He was absolute monarch. But, because he was a very good man, he made his orders reasonable. He would say, by way of example.
" If I ordered a general to change himself into a seabird and if the general did not carry out the order he had received, which one of us would be in the wrong?" the king demanded. " The general or myself? "
" You," said the prince firmly.
" Exactly. One must require from each other the duty which each one can perform. Accepted authority rests first of all reason," the king went on.
The little prince yawned. He was already beginning to be a little bored.
" I have nothing more to do here," he said to the king. " So I shall set out on my way again."
" Do not go," said the king.

But the little prince, having completed his preparations for departure, had no wish to grieve the old monarch. Then, with a sigh, he took his leave. " The grown-ups are very strange", the little prince said to himself as he continued his journey.

The second planet was inhabited by a conceited man. For conceited men, all other men are admirers. He is wearing a hat for salutes when people acclaim him. " Clap your hands, one against the other," the conceited man directed him.

The little prince clapped his hands. The conceited man raised his hat in a modest salute.
" This is more entertaining than the visit to the king," the little prince said to himself. And he began again to clap his hands. The conceited man again raised his hat in salute. After five minutes of this exercise, the little prince grew tired of the game's monotomy.
" And what should one do to make the hat come down?" he asked.
But the conceited man did not hear him. Conceited people never hear anything but praise. " The grown-ups are certainly very odd."The little prince shrugged his shoulders slightly and he went away.

The next planet was inhabited by a tippler. This was a very short visit but it plunged the little prince into deep dejection.
The tippler settled down in silence before a collection of empty bottles and also a collection of full bottles. He was drinking to forget that he is ashamed of drinking and shut himself up in an impregnable silence.
The little prince went away, puzzled.
" The grown-ups are certainly very very odd.

The fourth planet belonged to a businessman. This man was so much occupied in counting and recounting the stars he thinks he owns.

" What good does it do you to own the stars?"

" It does me the good of being rich. I administer them." replied the businessman.

" But you cannot pluck the stars from heaven...........

" I myself own a flower," the little prince continued his conversation with the businessman, which I water everyday. I own three volcanoes which I clean out every week. It is of some use to my volcanoes and it is of some use to my flower that I own them. But you are of no use to the stars............"

The businessman opened his mouth but he found nothing to say in answer. And the little prince went away.

" The grown-ups are certainly altogether extraordinary," he said simply.

The fifth planet was very strange. It was the smallest of all. There was just enough room on it for a street lamp and a lamplighter who follow a terrible profession and orders.

When the lamplighter lights his street lamp, it is as if he brought one more star to life or one flower. When he puts out his lamp, he sends the flower or the star to sleep. He is the only adult who care about something other than himself.

" That man ", said the little prince to himself, " is the only one of them all whom I could have made my friend but his planet is indeed too small. There is no room on it for two people........"

He continued farther his journey.

The sixth planet was ten times larger than the last one. It was inhabited by an old gentleman who wrote voluminous books. He is a geographer, a scholar who knows the location of all the seas, rivers, towns, mountains and deserts. It is not the geographer who goes out to counts the towns, the rivers, the mountains, the seas, the oceans and the deserts. It was the explorers who notes down what they are recall of their travels.

" You come from far away! You are an explorer! You shall describe your planet to me! "

The geographer was suddenly stirred to excitement.

" Oh, where I live, " said the little prince, it is not interesting. It is also small. I have three volcanoes. I have also a flower."

" We do not record flowers. " said the geographer, because they are ephemeral which is in danger of speedy disappearance."

" My flower is in danger of speedy disappearance and I have left her on my planet, all alone! "

That was his first moment of regret.

The geographer then recommends that he visit the Earth.

And the little prince went away thinking of his flower.

So, then, the seventh planet was the Earth.

When the little prince arrived on Earth, he was very much surprised not to see any people. He was beginning to be afraid he had come to a wrong planet. He meets a snake who informs him that he is in the African desert where there are no people.

The little prince gazed at the snake 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 a finger of a king," said the snake. I can carry you farther than any ship could take you. Whomever I touch, I send back to the earth from whence they came but you are too innocent. You move me to pity--- you are so weak. I can help you someday if you grow too homesick for your own planet. I can -------"

" Oh! I understand you very well," said the little prince. And they were both silent.

The little prince crossed the desert, climbed a high mountain, walked for a long time through sand, rocks and snow. At last, he came upon a road that lead to the abodes of men. He was standing before a garden, all a-bloom with roses. He gazed at them. They all looked like his flower. His flower had told him that she was the only one of her kind in all the universe. And here, were five thousand of them, all alike, in one single garden! Then, he went on with his reflections: " I thought I was rich with a flower that was unique in all the world and all I had was a common rose. " He lay down in the grass and cried. It was then that the fox appeared.

" Come and play with me," proposed the little prince. " I am so unhappy."

" I cannot play with you," the fox said. " I am not tamed."

" What does that mean--- tame?"

" You do not live here?" said the fox. " What is it that you are looking for?"

" I am looking for men," said the little prince. " I have friends to discover and great many thing to understand."

" Men?........ Men have no more time to understand anything. They buy things all ready made at the shops. But there is no shop anywhere where one can but friendship, and so, men have no friends anymore. If you want a friend, tame me.............."

" What does that mean? "

" It means to establish ties." said the fox. " Just that. To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who just like a hundred thousand other little boys and I have no need of you. And you, on your part, have no need of me. To you, I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world............."

" I am beginning to understand," said the little prince. " There is a flower................ I think that she has tamed me.

" What must I do to tame you?" asked the little prince.

" You must be very patient," replied the fox. " First, you will sit down at a little distant from me---- like that------ in the grass. I shall look at you out of the corner of my eye and you will say nothing. Words are the source of misunderstandings. But you will sit a little closer to me, everyday...............

It would have been better to come back at the same hour. If, for example, you came at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, then, at 3 o'clock, I shall begin to be happy. I shall feel happier and happier as the hour advances. At 4 o'clock, I shall ready be worrying and jumping about. I shall show you how happy I am! But if you come at just any time, I shall never be know at what hour my heart is to be ready to greet you......... One must observe the proper rites."

So, the little prince tamed the fox. And when the hour of his departure drew near----

" Ah," said the fox. " I shall cry."

" It is your own fault," said the little prince. " I never wished you any sort of harm, but, you wanted me to tame you.............."

" Yes, that is so," said the fox.

" But now, you are going to cry!" said the little prince. " Then, it has done you no good at all !"

" It has done me good," said the fox. " Because you have hair that is the color of gold, the color of the wheat fields. The grain which is also golden will bring me back the thought of you."

Then, he added.

" Go, and look again at the roses. You will understand now that yours is unique in all the world. Then, come back to say goodbye to me. I will make you a present of a secret. "

The little prince went away to look again at the roses.

" You are not all like my rose," he said. " As yet, you are nothing. No one has tamed you and you have tamed no one. You are like my fox when I first knew him. He was only a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes but I have made him my friend, and now, he is unique in all the world. You are beautiful but you are empty. One could not die for you. To be sure, an ordinary passer-by would think that my rose looked just like you----- the rose that belongs to me. But in herself alone, she is more important than all the hundreds of you other roses because it is she that I have watered, because it is she that I have put under the glass globe, because it is she that I have sheltered behind the screen, because it is for her that I have killed the caterpillars, because it is she that I have listened to when she grumbled or boasted or even sometimes when she said nothing. Because she is my rose."

And he went back to meet the fox.

" Goodbye," he said.

" Goodbye," said the fox. " And now, here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye. It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important. Men have forgotten this truth, but you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. You are responsible for your rose............"

THE PILOT AND THE LITTLE PRINCE

Once when I was six years old, I saw a magnificent picture in a book called True Stories From Nature about the primeval forest. It was a picture of a boa constrictor in the act of swallowing an animal.

In the book, it said: " Boa constrictors swallow their prey whole without chewing it. After that, they are not able to move and they sleep through the six months that they need for digestion."

I pondered deeply over the adventures of the jungle. After some work with a colored pencil, I succeeded in making my first drawing.

I showed my masterpiece to the grown-ups and asked them whether the drawing frightened them but they answered: " Frighten? Why should anyone be frightened by a hat?"

My drawing was not a picture of a hat. It was a picture of a boa constrictor digesting an elephant but since the grown-ups were not able to understand it, I made another drawing: I drew the inside of the boa constrictor so that grown-ups could see it clearly.

The grown-ups response this time was to advise me to lay aside my drawings of boa constrictors whether from the inside or the outside, that's why at the age of six, I gave up what might have been a magnificent career as a painter. I had been disheartened by the failure of my drawings. Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves and it is tiring for children to be always and forever explaining things to them. So, then, I chose another profession and learned to pilot aeroplanes.

In the course of this life I have a great encounters with a great many people who have been concerned with matters of consequence. Whenever I met one of them who seemed to me at all clearsighted, I tried to experiment of showing my drawing which I always kept. I would try to find out if this was a person of true understanding but whoever it was, he or she would always say: " That is a hat." Then, I would never talk to that person about boa constrictors. I would bring myself down to his level.

So, I lived my life alone without anyone I could really talk too until I had an accident with my plane in the desert of Sahara. Something was broken to my engine and as I had with me neither mechanic nor any passengers, I set myself to attempt the repairs all alone. It was a question of life or death for me: I had scarcely enough drinking water to last a week.

The first night, I went to sleep on the sand, a thousand miles from any human habitation.

Thus, you can imagine my amazement. At sunrise, I was awakened by an odd little voice. It said:

" If you please---- draw me a sheep!"

I jumped to my feet completely thunderstruck. I blinked my eyes hard. I looked around me and saw a most extraordinary small person who stood there examining me with great seriousness.

When a mystery is too overpowering, one dare not disobey. I took out of my pocket a sheet of paper and my fountain-pen. I told the little chap that I did not know how to draw. He answered me:

" That doesn't matter. Draw me a sheep........"

But I had never drawn a sheep, so I drew for him the pictures I had drawn so often. It was the boa constrictor from the outside. I was astounded to hear the little fellow greet it with:

" No, no, no ! I do not want an elephant inside a boa constrictor. It is a very dangerous creature and an elephant is very cumbersome. Where I live, everything is very small. What I need is a sheep. Draw me a sheep."

So then, I made a drawing. He look at it carefully, then he said:

" No. This sheep is already sickly. Make me another."

So, I made another drawing. My friend smiled gently and indulgently.

" You see yourself," he said, " that this is not a sheep. This is a ram. It has horns."

So then, I did my drawing over once more but it was rejected too just like the others.

" This is too old. I want a sheep that will live a long time."

By this time my patience was exhausted because I was in a hurry to start taking my engine apart. So, I tossed off this drawing. I threw out an explanation with it.

" This is only his box. The sheep you asked for is inside."

I was very surprised to see a light break over the face of my young judge.

" That is exactly the way I wanted it ! Do you think that this sheep will have to have a great deal of grass? Because where I live everything is very small.........."

" There is surely be enough grass for him," I said. " It is a very small sheep that I have given you."

And that is how I made the acquaintance of the little prince.

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 aeroplane, he asked me:

" What is that object?"

" That is not an object. It flies. It is an aeroplane."

" What ! You dropped down from the sky? "

" Yes," I answered modestly.

Then he added:

" So, you too, come from the sky ! Which is your planet?"

" Do you come from another planet? "

But he did not reply.

You can imagine how my curiosity was aroused by this half-confidence about the other planets. I have serious reason to believe that the planet from which the little prince came is the asteroid known as B-612.

This asteroid has only once be seen through the telescope by a Turkish astronomer in 1909. On making his discovery, the astronomer had presented it to the International Astronomical Congress but he was in Turkish costume and nobody would believe what he said.

Grown-ups are like that..........

So, in 1920, the astronomer gave his demonstration all over again, dressed with impressive style and elegance and this time, everybody accepted his report.

If I have told you these details about the asteroid, it is no account of the grown-ups and their ways.

Grown-ups love figures. When you tell them that you have made a new friend, they never ask you any questions about essential matters. They never say to you, " What does his voice sound like? What games does he love best? Instead, they demand:

" How old is he? How many brothers has he? How much money does his father make?" Only from these figures do they think they have learned anything about him.

But certainly, for us who understand life, figures are not a matter of indifference.

As each day passed, I would learn in our talk something about the little prince's planet that I heard on the third day about the catastrophe of the baobabs.

The little prince asked me abruptly---- as if seized by a grave doubt---- " It is true isn't it that the sheep eat little bushes?"

" Yes, that is true."

I did not understand why it was so important that sheep should eat little bushes. But the prince added:

" Then, it follows that they also eat baobabs?"

I pointed out to the little prince that baobabs were not little bushes but on the contrary, trees as big as castles and that even if he took a whole herd of elephants away with him, the herd would not eat up one single baobabs. But he made a wise comment:

" Before they grow so big, the baobabs start out by being little."

" That is strictly correct," I said.

" A baobab is something you will never, never be able to get rid of if you attend to it too late. One must destroy it as soon as possible, the very first instant that one recognizes it. It is very tedious work," the little prince added, " but very easy. Sometimes, there is no harm in putting off a piece of work until another day but when it is a matter of baobabs, that's always mean a catastrophe.

On the fifth day---- again, as always, it was thanks to the sheep---- the secret of the little prince's life was revealed to me.

" A sheep---- if it eats little bushes, does it eat flowers too?"

" A sheep," I answered, " eats anything it finds in its reach."

" Even flowers that have thorns?"

" Yes, even flowers that have thorns."

" The thorns---- what use are they?"

" The thorns are no use at all. Flowers have thorns just for spite !"

" I don't believe you ! Flowers are weak creatures. They are naive. They reassure themselves as best they can. They believe that their thorns are terrible weapons.........."

" Oh, no ! " I cried. No, no, no ! I don't believe anything. I answered you with the first thing that came into my head. Don't you see---- I am busy with matters of consequence !"

He stare at me, thunderstruck.

" Matters of consequence !"

He looked at me there with my hammer in my hand, my fingers black with engine grease, bending down over an object which seemed to him extremely ugly............

" You talk just like grown-ups ! You mix everything up together.......

You confuse everything........."

He was really very angry. He tossed his golden curls in the breeze. The little prince was now white with rage.

" The flowers have been growing thorns for millions of years. For millions of years, the sheep have been eating them just the same. I myself, have a flower which is unique in the world which grows nowhere but on my planet but which one little sheep can destroy in a single bite some morning without noticing what he is doing---- Oh! You think that it is not important !"

His face turned from white to red. He could not say anything more. His words were choked by sobbing.

The night had fallen. I had let my tools drop from my hands. There was a little prince to be comforted. I took him in my arms and rocked him. I said to him:

" The flower that you love is not in danger. I will draw a muzzle for your sheep. I will draw you a railing to put around your flower. I will------"

I did not know what to say to him. I felt awkward and blundering.

It was now the eight day since I had my accident in the desert. I have not yet succeeded in repairing my plane. I have nothing to drink. The little prince has no way of guessing the danger. He has never been either hungry or thirsty. A little sunshine is all that he needs.

He looked at me steadily and replied to my thought:

" I am thirsty too. Let us look for a well.........."

I made a gesture of weariness. It is absurd to look for a well at random in the immensity of the desert but nevertheless, we started walking.

When we had trudged along for several hours, in silence, the darkness fell. Thirst had made me a little feverish. The little prince was tired. He sat down. I sat down beside him. After a little silence, he spoke again:

" The desert is beautiful."

And that was true. I have always love the desert. One sits down at the desert sand dune, sees nothing, hears nothing. Yet, through the silence something throbs and gleams.

" What makes the desert beautiful," said the little prince, " is that somewhere it hides a well............"

As the little prince dropped off to sleep, I took him in my arms and set out walking once more. In the moonlight, I looked at his pale forehead, his eyes closed and I said to myself:

" What I see here is nothing but a shell, his loyalty to a flower---- the image of a rose that shines through his whole being like the flame of a lamp, even when he sleep......."

And as I walked on so, I found the well at daybreak.

The well that we had come was not like the wells of the Sahara. The wells of Sahara are mere holes dug in the sand. This one was like a well in the village but there was no village here and I thought I must be dreaming.

" It is strange," I said to the little prince. " Everything is ready for use: the pulley, the bucket, the rope.........."

He laughed, touch the rope and set the pulley to working. And the pulley moaned.

" Do you hear? " said the little prince. " We have wakened the well and it is singing........"

I did not want him to tire himself with the rope.

" Leave it to me," I said. " It is too heavy for you."

I hoisted the bucket slowly to the edge of the well and set it there----- happy, tired as I was over my achievement.

" I am thirsty for this water, " said the little prince. " Give me some of it to drink......."

I raised the bucket to his lips. He drank, his eyes closed. It was as sweet as some special festival treat. This water is indeed a different thing from ordinary nourishment. It was good for the heart like a present.

" The men where you live," said the little prince, " raise five thousand roses in the same garden----- and they do not find in it what they are looking for. And yet, what they are looking for could be found in one single rose or in a little water but the eyes are blind. One must look with the heart.........."

I had drunk the water. I breathed easily.

" You must keep your promise," said the little prince softly as he sat down beside me once more.

" What promise?"

" You know----- a muzzle for my sheep......... I am responsible for this flower.........."

So then, I made a pencil sketch of a muzzle. And as I gave it to him, my heart was torn.

" You have plans that I do not know about, " I said.

But he did not answer me. He said to me instead:

" You know------ my descent to the Earth......... Tomorrow will be its anniversary. I came down very near here. "

And he flushed.

Once again, without understanding why, I had a queer sense of sorrow. One question occurred to me:

" Then, it was not by chance that on the morning when I first met you---- a week ago------ you were strolling along like that, all alone, you were on your way back to the place where you landed?"

He never answered questions---- but when one flushes does that not mean " Yes"?

" Now, you must work. You must return to your engine. I will be waiting for you here. Come back tomorrow evening..........."

Beside the well, there was the ruin of an old stone wall.

When I came back from my work the next evening, I saw from some distant away my little prince sitting on top of this wall with feet dangling. I heard him say:

" Then you remember. This is not the exact spot."

Another voice must have answered him for he replied to it:

" Yes, yes ! It is the right day but this is not the place."

At no time did I see or hear anyone.

The little prince however replied once again:

" Exactly.---- You will see where my track begins in the sand. You have nothing to do but wait for me there. I shall be there tonight. You have a good poison? You are sure that it will not make me suffer too long?"

I stopped in my tracks. My heart torn asunder but still I did not understand.

" Now go away," said the little prince. " I want to get down from the wall."

I dropped my eyes to the foot of the wall and I leaped into the air. There, before me, facing the little prince, was one of those yellow snakes that take thirty seconds to bring your life to an end.

Even as I was digging into my pocket to get out my revolver, I made a running step back but at the noise I made the snake let himself flow easily across the sand and in no apparentt hurry, disappeared.

I reached the wall just in time to catch my little prince in my arms. His face was white as snow.

" What does this mean?" I demanded. " Why are you talking with snakes?"

He looked at me very gravely and put his arms around my neck.

" I am glad that you have found what was the matter with your engine, " he said.

" How do you know about that?"

I was just coming to tell him that my work had been successful beyond anything that I had dared to hope.

He made no answer to my question but he added:

" I, too, am going back home today.........."

Then, sadly-------

" It is much farther....... It is much difficult.......... I have your sheep. I have the sheep's box and I have the muzzle.........."

He gave me a sad smile.

" Tonight, it will be a year........ My star, then, can be found right above the place where I came to the Earth a year ago.......

" Little man," I said, "tell me that it is only a bad dream----- this affair of the snake, the meeting place and the star............"

But he did not answer my plea. He said to me instead:

" The thing that is important is the thing that is not seen........."

" Yes, I know........."

" My star will be just one of the stars for you. You will love to watch all stars in the heavens.......... They will be all be your friends," he answered.

"All men have stars but they are not the same things for different people. For some who are travellers, the stars are guides. For others, they are no more than little lights in the sky. For others who are scholars, they are problems. For my businessman, they are wealth but all the stars are silent. You--- you alone---- will have the stars as no one else has them.------ Tonight, do not come."

" I shall not leave you," I said.

" I shall look as if I were suffering. I shall look a little as if I were dying. It is like that. Do not come to see that. It is not worth the trouble.........."

That night, I did not see him set out on his way. He got away from me without making a sound.

" Ah ! You are there..........."

He took me by the hand. He was still worrying.

" It was wrong of you to come. You will suffer. I shall look as if I were dead and that will not be true........."

I said nothing.

" You understand.......... It is too far. I cannot carry this body with me. It is too heavy. "

I said nothing.

And he too, said nothing because he was crying.........

" Here it is. Let me go on by myself. There now----- that is all.........."

There was nothing there but a flash of yellow close to his ankle. He remained motionless for an instant. He did not cry out. He fell gently as a tree fall. There was not even any sound because of the sand.

I know that he did go back to his planet because I did not found his body at daybreak. It was not such a heavy body.............

And now, six years have already gone by.........

I had never yet told this story. The companions who met me on my return were content to see me alive.

It was sad but I told them: " I am tired."

And at night, I love to listen to the stars. It is like five hundred million little bells but there is one extraordinary thing.........

When I drew a muzzle for the little prince, I forgot to add the leather strap to it. He will never have been able to fasten it on his sheep. So now, I keep wondering:

What is happening on his planet? Perhaps, the sheep has eaten the flower.......

Look up at the sky. Ask yourselves:

Has the sheep eaten the flower? Is it yes or no? And you will see how everything changes.........

Here then, is a great mystery for you who also love the little prince and for me, nothing in the universe can be the same if somewhere we do not know where, a sheep that we never saw has yes or no----- eaten a rose.........

And no grown-up will ever understand that this is a matter of such importance !