Picture Dictionary & Books : Free for English Learner!

"Ah! I am scarcely awake. I beg that you will excuse me. My petals are still all disarranged . . ."

But the little prince could not restrain his admiration:

"Oh! How beautiful you are!"

"Am I not?" the flower responded, sweetly.

"And I was born at the same moment as the sun . . ."

The little prince could guess easily enough that she was not any too modest-but how moving--and exciting--she was!

"I think it is time for breakfast," she added an instant later.

"If you would have the kindness to think of my needs--"

And the little prince, completely abashed, went to look for a sprinkling-can of fresh water.

So, he tended the flower.

So, too, she began very quickly to torment him with her vanity--which was, if the truth be known, a little difficult to deal with.

One day, for instance, when she was speaking of her four thorns, she said to the little prince: "Let the tigers come with their claws!"

"There are no tigers on my planet," the little prince objected.

"And, anyway, tigers do not eat weeds."

"I am not a weed," the flower replied, sweetly.

"Please excuse me . . ."

"I am not at all afraid of tigers," she went on, "but I have a horror of drafts.

I suppose you wouldn't have a screen for me?"

"A horror of drafts--that is bad luck, for a plant," remarked the little prince, and added to himself, "This flower is a very complex creature . . ."

"At night I want you to put me under a glass globe.

It is very cold where you live. In the place I came from--"

But she interrupted herself at that point.