"The men where you live," said the little prince, "raisefive thousand roses in the same garden-- and they do not find in it what theyare looking for."
"They do not find it," I replied.
"And yet what they are looking for could be found in one single rose,or in a little water."
"Yes, that is true," I said.
And the little prince added:
"But the eyes are blind. One must look with the heart..."
I had drunk the water. I breathed easily. At sunrise the sand is the colorof honey. And that honey color was making me happy, too. What brought me, then,this sense of grief?
"You must keep your promise," said the little prince, softly, ashe sat down beside me once more.
"What promise?"
"You know-- a muzzle for my sheep... I am responsible for thisflower..."
I took my rough drafts of drawings out of my pocket. The little princelooked them over, and laughed as he said:
"Your baobabs-- they look a little like cabbages."
"Oh!"
I had been so proud of my baobabs!
"Your fox-- his ears look a little like horns; and they are toolong."
And he laughed again.
"You are not fair, little prince," I said. "I don't knowhow to draw anything except boa constrictors from the outside and boaconstrictors from the inside."
"Oh, that will be all right," he said, "childrenunderstand."
So then I made a pencil sketch of a muzzle. And as I gave it to him my heartwas 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 itsanniversary."
Then, after a silence, he went on:
"I came down very near here."
And he flushed.
And once again, without understanding why, I had a queer sense of sorrow.One question, however, 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, a thousand milesfrom any inhabited region? You were on the your back to the place where youlanded?"
The little prince flushed again.
And I added, with some hesitancy:
"Perhaps it was because of the anniversary?"
The little prince flushed once more. He never answered questions-- butwhen one flushes does that not mean "Yes"?
"Ah," I said to him, "I am a little frightened--"
But he interrupted me.
"Now you must work. You must return to your engine. I will be waitingfor you here. Come back tomorrow evening..."
ButI was not reassured. I remembered the fox. One runs the risk of weeping alittle, if one lets himself be tamed...
