THE LITTLE PRINCE

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

CHAPTER 3

It was a long time before I could learn anything about the world he came from. The little prince asked me question after question, but never seemed to hear mine. It was from carelessly dropped words that I gradually constructed the tale.

When he noticed my plane for the first time, for instance (no, I shall not draw it; it is too complicated), he asked me, ‘What is that thing?’

‘That is not a thing. It can fly. It is a plane. It is my airplane.’

I was quite proud to have him know that I was a pilot and could fly the plane.

He cried out, ‘Oh my! So you dropped out of the sky?’

‘Yes,’ I answered, humbly.

‘That is so funny!’

And the little prince broke into a ringing laugh, which displeased me very much. I expect others to take my problems seriously.

Then he said, ‘So you have come from the sky too! From which planet?’

At that instant I realized he was giving me an important hint about himself, and I said, ‘You’re from a different planet, aren’t you?’

He did not respond. Gazing steadily at my plane he remarked, ‘In that thing, you couldn’t have come from very far away.’