CHAPTER 11 – KING
Chapter 11
The little prince was close to the asteroids 325, 326, 327, 328, 329 and 330. So he began to visit them. He wanted to be busy and learn something.
There was a king on the first planet. The king had expensive clothes. He was sitting on a simple but big throne.
“Ah! Here is a visitor,” the king said when he saw the little prince.
And the little prince asked himself, “How can he know who I am? He didn’t see me before.”
“Come closer to me. I want to see you better,” said the king. He was very proud that he was a king for somebody now.
The little prince looked around. He needed a place where he could sit down. But the king’s clothes were on the whole planet. So he was standing. And because he was tired, he yawned.
“It’s against etiquette to yawn in front of a king,” the king told him. “You can’t do it.”
“I can’t help it,” said the little prince. “My journey was very long, and I didn’t have any sleep.”
“Then you have to yawn,” said the king, “People usually don’t yawn in front of me. It’s very intereresting. Come on! Yawn again!”
“I am sorry. I can’t yawn when you tell me to do it,” said the little prince. His face was red now.
“Oh, well!” said the king, “Then I tell you to yawn sometimes and then…” He was confused a little and he looked upset because the king’s orders have to be always respected. He couldn’t tolerate if somebody didn’t follow his orders. But, because he was a very good man, all his orders were reasonable.
“If I ordered a general,” he liked to give this example, “if I ordered a general to change into a sea bird, and if the general didn’t do it, it wouldn’t be the general’s mistake. It would be my mistake.”
“Can I sit down?” the little prince asked quietly.
“I order you to sit down,” the king said. And he pulled a piece of his clothes so that there was some space for the little prince to sit down.
The little prince was thinking about one thing. The planet was very small. The king didn’t control a big area.
“Can I ask you a question?” said the little prince.
“I order you to ask me a question,” the king said.
“What do you control?”
“I control everything,” said the king.
“Everything?”
The king looked at his planet, then at the other planets, and all the stars.
“Are you the king of all that?” asked the little prince.
“I am the king of all,” said the king. He didn’t control only his planet. He was the king of all the universe.
“And do the stars do what you want?”
“Of course,” said the king. “They do it fast. They do exactly what I want them to do.”
