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.
XVIII
The little prince crossed the desert and met with only one flower. It was a flower with three petals, a flower of no account at all.
'Good morning,' said the little prince.
'Good morning,' said the flower.
'Where are the men?' the little prince asked, politely.
The flower had once seen a caravan passing.
'Men?' she echoed. 'I think there are six or seven of them in existence. I saw them, several years ago. But one never knows where to find them. The wind blows them away. They have no roots, and that makes their life very difficult.'
'Goodbye,' said the little prince.
'Goodbye,' said the flower.
XIX
After that, the little prince climbed a high mountain. The only mountains he had ever known were the three volcanoes, which came up to his knees. And he used the extinct volcano as a footstool. 'From a mountain as high as this one,' he said to himself, 'I shall be able to see the whole planet at one glance, and all the people...'
But he saw nothing, save peaks of rock that were sharpened like needles.
'Good morning,' he said courteously.
'Good morning — Good morning — Good morning,' answered the echo.
'Who are you?' said the little prince.
'Who are you — Who are you — Who are you?' answered the echo.
'Be my friends. I am all alone,' he said.
'I am all alone — all alone — all alone,' answered the echo.
'What a queer planet!' he thought. 'It is altogether dry, and altogether pointed, and altogether harsh and forbidding. And the people have no imagination. They repeat whatever one says to them... On my planet I had a flower; she always was the first to speak...'
ХX
ce at last came upon a road. And all roads lead to the abodes of men.
'Good morning,' he said.
He was standing before a garden, all a-bloom with roses.
'Good morning,' said the roses.
The little prince gazed at them. They all looked like his flower.
'Who are you?' he demanded, thunderstruck.
'We are roses,' the roses said.
And he was overcome with sadness. 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!
'She would be very much annoyed,' he said to himself, 'if she should see that... She would cough most dreadfully, and she would pretend that she was dying, to avoid being laughed at. And I should be obliged to pretend that I was nursing her back to life — for if I did not do that, to humble myself also, she would really allow herself to die...'
Then he went on with his reflections: 'I thought that I was rich, with a flower that was unique in all the world; and all I had was a common rose. A common rose, and three volcanoes that come up to my knees — and one of them perhaps extinct forever... That doesn't make me a very great prince...'
And he lay down in the grass and cried.
XXI
It was then that the fox appeared.
'Good morning,' said the fox.
'Good morning,' the little prince responded politely, although when he turned around he saw nothing.
'I am right here,' the voice said, 'under the apple tree.'
'Who are you?' asked the little prince, and added, 'You are very pretty to look at.'
'I am a fox,' the fox said.
