| 1 | Chapter 1 . |
| 2 | 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 . |
| 3 | Here is a copy of the drawing . |
| 4 | 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 . ” |
| 5 | I pondered deeply , then , over the adventures of the jungle . And after some work with a colored pencil I succeeded in making my first drawing . My Drawing Number One . It looked like this : I showed my masterpiece to the grown_-_ups , and asked them whether the drawing frightened them . But they answered : “ Frighten ? |
| 6 | Why should any one be frightened by a hat ? ” |
| 7 | 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 the grown_-_ups could see it clearly . They always need to have things explained . My Drawing Number Two looked like this : 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 , and devote myself instead to geography , history , arithmetic and grammar . That is 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 Drawing Number One and my Drawing Number Two . Grown_-_ups never understand anything by themselves , and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them . So then I chose another profession , and learned to pilot airplanes . I have flown a little over all parts of the world ; and it is true that geography has been very useful to me . At a glance I can distinguish China from Arizona . |
| 8 | If one gets lost in the night , such knowledge is valuable . |
| 9 | In the course of this life I have had a great many encounters with a great many people who have been concerned with matters of consequence . I have lived a great deal among grown_-_ups . I have seen them intimately , close at hand . And that has n't much improved my opinion of them . Whenever I met one of them who seemed to me at_all clear_-_sighted , I tried the experiment of showing him my Drawing Number One which , I have always kept . I would try to find out , so , 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 , or primeval forests , or stars . I would bring myself down_to his level . I would talk to him about bridge , and golf , and politics , and neckties . |
| 10 | And the grown_-_up would be greatly pleased to have met such a sensible man . |
| 11 | Chapter 2 . |
| 12 | So I lived my life alone , without anyone that I could really talk to , until I had an accident with my plane in the Desert of Sahara , six years ago . Something was broken in my engine . And as I had with me neither a mechanic nor any passengers , I set myself to attempt the difficult 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 , then , I went to sleep on the sand , a thousand miles from any human habitation . I was more isolated than a shipwrecked sailor on a raft in the middle of the ocean . Thus you can imagine my amazement , at sunrise , when I was awakened by an odd little voice . It said : “ If you please — draw me a sheep ! ” |
| 13 | “ What ! ” |
| 14 | “ Draw me a sheep ! ” |
| 15 | I jumped to my feet , completely thunderstruck . I blinked my eyes hard . I looked carefully all around me . And I saw a most extraordinary small person , who stood there examining me with great seriousness . Here you may see the best portrait that , later , I was able to make of him . But my drawing is certainly very much less charming than its model . That , however , is not my fault . The grown_-_ups discouraged me in my painter 's career when I was six years old , and I never learned to draw anything , except boas from the outside and boas from the inside . Now I stared at this sudden apparition with my eyes fairly starting out_of my head in astonishment . Remember , I had crashed in the desert a thousand miles from any inhabited region . And yet my little man seemed neither to be straying uncertainly among the sands , nor to be fainting from fatigue or hunger or thirst or fear . Nothing about him gave any suggestion of a child lost in the middle of the desert , a thousand miles from any human habitation . When at_last I was able to speak , I said to him : “ But — what are you doing here ? ” And in answer he repeated , very slowly , as_if he were speaking of a matter of great consequence : “ If you please — draw me a sheep ... ” |
| 16 | When a mystery is too overpowering , one dare not disobey . |
| 17 | Absurd as it might seem to me , a thousand miles from any human habitation and in danger of death , I took out_of my pocket a sheet of paper and my fountain_-_pen . But then I remembered how my studies had been concentrated on geography , history , arithmetic , and grammar , and I told the little chap , a little crossly , too , that I did not know how to draw . He answered me : “ That does n't matter . Draw me a sheep ... ” But I had never drawn a sheep . So I drew for him one of the two pictures I had drawn so often . It was that of the boa constrictor from the outside . And I was astounded to hear the little fellow greet it with , “ No , no , no ! I do not want an elephant inside a boa constrictor . |
| 18 | A boa constrictor is a very dangerous creature , and an elephant is very cumbersome . |
| 19 | Where I live , everything is very small . What I need is a sheep . Draw me a sheep . ” |
| 20 | So then I made a drawing . He looked at it carefully , then he said : “ No . This sheep is already very 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 one 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 . And 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 ? ” |
| 21 | “ Why ? ” |
| 22 | “ Because where I live everything is very small ... ” |
| 23 | “ There will surely be enough grass for him , ” I said . “ It is a very small sheep that I have given you . ” He bent his head over the drawing : |
| 24 | “ Not so small that — |
| 25 | Look ! |
| 26 | He has gone to sleep ... ” |
| 27 | And that is how I made the acquaintance of the little prince . |