CHAPTER 13 – PEOPLE
Chapter 13
The little prince comes to the second planet. He sees another strange man. The man likes when people admire him.
“Another person who admires me!” says the man when he sees the little prince.
He believes that all people admire him.
“Good morning,” says the little prince. “You have a funny hat.”
“I use this hat when I say good morning to people who come to visit me. But not many people visit me here.”
“Really?” says the little prince.
“Really. Clap your hands,” says the man.
The little prince claps his hands. And the man touches his hat and he moves the hat a little.
“This is more fun than the visit to the king,” the little prince thinks.
The little prince claps his hands again and again. The man touches his hat again and again.
After five minutes of this exercise the little prince starts to be tired of this game.
“Do you only touch your hat? Or can you do something else?” he asks.
But the man doesn’t hear him. This type of people never hear other people. They hear only when somebody admires them.
“Do you really admire me very much?” he asks the little prince.
“What is ‘admire’?”
“To admire is to believe that I am the most handsome, the richest and the most intelligent man on the planet.”
“But you are the only man on your planet!”
“Yes, I know that I am the only man on this planet. But please admire me.”
“I admire you,” says the little prince, “but I don’t understand why it is so important to you.”
The little prince has nothing else to do on this planet. So he continues on his journey.
“Adults are very strange,” he thinks when he is leaving this planet.
When the little prince visits the next planet, he sees a man. This man drinks a lot. He is drunk.
This is a very short visit. And it is a sad visit.
“What are you doing?” he asks the drunk man. The drunk man sits before bottles. Some bottles are empty. Some bottles are full.
“I am drinking,” says the drunk man. His face is not happy.
“Why are you drinking?” the little prince asks.
“I want to forget,” says the drunk man.
“To forget what?” asks the little prince.
“To forget that I feel horrible,” says the drunk man. And he puts his head down.
“Why do you feel horrible?” asks the little prince. The Little Prince wants to help the drunk man.
“I feel horrible because I drink so much. I know that it is bad to drink so much!” says the drunk man. Then he is quiet.
The little prince leaves the planet.
“Adults are very, very strange,” he thinks when he continues on his journey.
