The Lamplighter

The fifth planet was very strange. It was the smallest of all. There was just enough room on it for one street lamp and one lamplighter.

The little prince could not understand the use of a street lamp and a lamplighter on a planet with no people and no houses. But he said to himself: "Perhaps this man is absurd. But he is not so absurd as the king, the conceited man, the businessman, and the tippler. For at least his work has some meaning. When he lights his lamp, it is as if he brings one more star to life, or one flower. When he puts out his lamp, he sends the flower, or the star, to sleep. That is a beautiful occupation."

He greeted the lamplighter respectfully. "Good morning. Why have you just put out your lamp?"

"Those are the orders," replied the lamplighter. "Good morning."

"What are the orders?"

"The orders are that I put out my lamp. Good evening." And he lit it again.

"But why have you just lit it again?"

"Those are the orders," said the lamplighter.

"I do not understand," said the little prince.

"There is nothing to understand. Orders are orders. Good morning." And he put out his lamp again.

Then he explained: "I follow a terrible profession. In the old days it was reasonable. I put the lamp out in the morning and lit it in the evening. I had the rest of the day for rest and the rest of the night for sleep. But from year to year the planet has turned more rapidly, and the orders have not changed! Now it makes a complete turn every minute, and I have not a single second of rest. Once every minute I have to light my lamp and put it out!"

"That man," said the little prince to himself as he continued farther on his journey, "would be looked down on by all the others — by the king, by the conceited man, by the tippler, by the businessman. Yet he is the only one who does not seem ridiculous to me. Perhaps it is because he thinks of something other than himself."