The Little Prince Read Online Free PDF Page A

an admirer!" he exclaimed from afar, when he first saw the little prince coming.
     
    For, to conceited men, all other men are admirers.
     
    "Good morning," said the little prince.  "That is a queer hat you are wearing."
     
    "It is a hat for salutes," the conceited man replied.  "It is to raise in salute when people acclaim me.  Unfortunately, nobody at all ever passes this way."
     
    "Yes?" said the little prince, who did not understand what the conceited man was talking about.
     
    "Clap your hands, one against the other," the conceited man now directed him.
     
    The little prince clapped his hands.  The conceited man raised his hat in a modest salute.
     
    "This is more entertaining than the visit to the king," the little prince said to himself.  And he began again to clap his hands, one against the other.  The conceited man against raised his hat in salute.
     
    After five minutes of this exercise the little prince grew tired of the game's monotony.
     
    "And what should one do to make the hat come down?" he asked.
     
    But the conceited man did not hear him.  Conceited people never hear anything but praise.
     
    "Do you really admire me very much?" he demanded of the little prince.
     
    "What does that mean-- 'admire'?"
     
    "To admire mean that you regard me as the handsomest, the best-dressed, the richest, and the most intelligent man on this planet."
     
    "But you are the only man on your planet!"
     
    "Do me this kindness.  Admire me just the same."
     
    "I admire you," said the little prince, shrugging his shoulders slightly, "but what is there in that to interest you so much?"
     
    And the little prince went away.
     
    "The grown-ups are certainly very odd," he said to himself, as he continued on his journey.

 
     
    Chapter XII
     
     

     
    The next planet was inhabited by a tippler.  This was a very short visit, but it plunged the little prince into deep dejection.
     
    "What are you doing there?" he said to the tippler, whom he found settled down in silence before a collection of empty bottles and also a collection of full bottles.
     
    "I am drinking," replied the tippler, with a lugubrious air.
     
    "Why are you drinking?" demanded the little prince.
     
    "So that I may forget," replied the tippler.
     
    "Forget what?" inquired the little prince, who already was sorry for him.
     
    "Forget that I am ashamed," the tippler confessed, hanging his head.
     
    "Ashamed of what?" insisted the little prince, who wanted to help him.
     
    "Ashamed of drinking!"  The tippler brought his speech to an end, and shut himself up in an impregnable silence.
     
    And the little prince went away, puzzled.
     
    "The grown-ups are certainly very, very odd," he said to himself, as he continued on his journey.

 
     
    Chapter XIII
     
     
    The fourth planet belonged to a businessman.  This man was so much occupied that he did not even raise his head at the little prince's arrival.
     
    "Good morning," the little prince said to him.  "Your cigarette has gone out."
     
    "Three and two make five.  Five and seven make twelve.  Twelve and three make fifteen.  Good morning.  Fifteen and seven make twenty-two.  Twenty-two and six make twenty-eight.  I haven't time to light it again.  Twenty-six and five make thirty-one.  Phew!  Then that makes five-hundred-and-one-million, six-hundred-twenty-two-thousand, seven-hundred-thirty-one."
     

     
    "Five hundred million what?" asked the little prince.
     
    "Eh?  Are you still there? Five-hundred-and-one million-- I can't stop... I have so much to do!  I am concerned with matters of consequence.  I don't amuse myself with balderdash.  Two and five make seven..."
     
    "Five-hundred-and-one million what?" repeated the little prince, who never in his life had let go of a question once he had asked it.
     
    The businessman raised his head.
     
    "During the fifty-four years that I have inhabited this planet, I have been disturbed only three times.  The first time was