The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Read Free Book Online Page B

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 (except the two or three that we saved to become butterflies); 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."
     
    "What is essential is invisible to the eye," the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember.
     
    "It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important."
     
    "It is the time I have wasted for my rose--" said the little prince, so that he would be sure to remember.
     
    "Men have forgotten this truth," said the fox.  "But you must not forget it.  You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.  You are responsible for your rose..."
     
    "I am responsible for my rose," the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember.

 
     
    Chapter XXII
     
     
    "Good morning," said the little prince.
     
    "Good morning," said the railway switchman.
     
    "What do you do here?" the little prince asked.
     
    "I sort out travellers, in bundles of a thousand," said the switchman.  "I send off the trains that carry them; now to the right, now to the left."
     
    And a brilliantly lighted express train shook the switchman's cabin as it rushed by with a roar like thunder.
     
    "They are in a great hurry," said the little prince.  "What are they looking for?"
     
    "Not even the locomotive engineer knows that," said the switchman.
     
    And a second brilliantly lighted express thundered by, in the opposite direction.
     
    "Are they coming back already?" demanded the little prince.
     
    "These are not the same ones," said the switchman.  "It is an exchange."
     
    "Were they not satisfied where they were?" asked the little prince.
     
    "No one is ever satisfied where he is," said the switchman.
     
    And they heard the roaring thunder of a third brilliantly lighted express.
     
    "Are they pursuing the first travellers?" demanded the little prince.
     
    "They are pursuing nothing at all," said the switchman.  "They are asleep in there, or if they are not asleep they are yawning.  Only the children are flattening their noses against the windowpanes."
     
    "Only the children know what they are looking for," said the little prince.  "They waste their time over a rag doll and it becomes very important to them; and if anybody takes it away from them, they cry..."
     
    "They are lucky," the switchman said.

 
     
    Chapter XXIII
     
     
    "Good morning," said the little prince.
     
    "Good morning," said the merchant.  This was a merchant who sold pills that had been invented to quench thirst.  You need only swallow one pill a week, and you would feel no need of anything to drink.
     
    "Why are you selling those?" asked the little prince.
     
    "Because they save a tremendous amount of time," said the merchant.  "Computations have been made by experts.  With these pills, you save fifty-three minutes in every week."
     
    "And what do I do with those fifty-three minutes?"
     
    "Anything you like..."
     
    "As for me," said the little prince to himself, "if I had fifty-three minutes to spend as I liked, I should walk at my leisure toward a spring of fresh water."
     

 
     
    Chapter XXIV
     
     
    It was now the eighth day since I had had my accident in the desert, and I had listened to the story of the merchant as I was drinking the last drop of my water supply.
     
    "Ah," I said to the little prince, "these memories of yours are very charming; but I have not yet succeeded in repairing my plane; I