CHAPTER SIX

Ah! little prince. Bit by bit I came to understand your sad little life . . . For a long time, your only entertainment had been the pleasure of watching sunsets. I learnt that new detail on the morning of the fourth day, when you said to me: 'I am very fond of sunsets. Let us go and watch sunset ...'

'But we must wait . . .'
'Wait for what?'
'Wait for the sun to set.'

You look very surprised at first, and then you laughed to yourself and said to me: 'I keep on thinking I am at home.'

Yes indeed. When it is midday in the United States, the sun, as everyone knows, is setting in France. One would just have to travel in one minute to France to be able to watch the sun setting there. Unfortunately, France is too far away for that. But on your tiny little planet, all you needed to do was to move your chair a few steps. And you could watch the twilight falling whenever you felt like it ...

'One day, I watched the sun setting forty-four times,' you told me. And a little later, you added: 'You know ... When one is so terribly sad, one loves sunsets ...'

'The day you watched those forty-four sunsets, were you that sad?' I asked.

But the little prince made no reply.

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