CHAPTER 7 – SUN

Step by step, I started to understand the secrets of the little prince’s life. For a long time his only fun was watching beautiful sunsets.

I learnt this new detail on the fourth day in the morning, when he said to me, “I really like sunsets. Let’s go look at a sunset now.”

“But we have to wait,” I said.

“Wait? Wait for what?”

“Wait until the sun goes down.”

At first, he looked very surprised. Then he laughed. And he said to me, “I’m always thinking that I’m at home.”

Everybody knows this. When it’s noon in the United States, the sun is going down in France. If you could fly to France in one minute, you could watch the sunset.

But on the little prince’s planet, you only needed to pull your chair a few steps. And you could watch the sun going down whenever you wished.

“One day I saw the sunset forty-three times,” said the little prince and he added, “When you are very sad, sunsets are wonderful.”

“On the day of the forty-three sunsets, did you feel very sad?” I asked. But the little prince didn’t answer.

On the fifth day, again thanks to the sheep, another secret of the little prince’s life was shown to me. He asked me, “If a sheep eats little bushes, does it eat flowers, too?”

“A sheep eats whatever it finds,” I answered.

“Even flowers that have thorns?”

“Yes. Even flowers that have thorns.”

“I don’t understand it. Why does the flower have thorns if a sheep can eat it?”

I didn’t know. At that moment I was very busy. I needed to repair my engine. I was quite worried because my situation began to be very serious. I had so little water that I had to fear the worst.

“Why does the flower have thorns?”

The little prince always wanted an answer to his question. But at that moment I was angry because I couldn’t repair my engine. I answered without thinking, “Thorns are good for nothing. Flowers have thorns because they want to upset others.”

“Oh!”

The little prince was thinking for a while. Then he said a little angrily, “I don’t believe you! Flowers are weak. They are naive. The thorns give them power. Flowers believe that their thorns are terrible weapons.”

I didn’t reply. I was very busy with my engine.