The Snake

So then the seventh planet was the Earth.

When the little prince arrived, he was very much surprised to see no people. He was beginning to be afraid he had come to the wrong planet, when a golden coil, the colour of moonlight, moved across the sand.

"Good evening," said the little prince.

"Good evening," said the snake.

"What planet is this on which I have come down?" asked the little prince.

"This is the Earth. This is Africa," the snake answered.

"Ah! Then there are no people on the Earth?"

"This is the desert. There are no people in the desert. The Earth is large," said the snake.

The little prince sat down on a stone and raised his eyes toward the sky.

"I wonder," he said, "whether the stars are lit in heaven so that one day each of us may find his own again. Look at my planet. It is right there above us. But how far away it is!"

"It is beautiful," the snake said. "What has brought you here?"

"I have been having some trouble with a flower," said the little prince.

"Ah!" said the snake. And they were both silent.

"Where are the men?" the little prince at last asked again. "It is a little lonely in the desert."

"It is also lonely among men," the snake said.

The little prince gazed at him for a long time. "You are a strange creature," he said at last. "You are no thicker than a finger."

"But I am more powerful than the finger of a king," said the snake.

"You cannot even travel. You have no feet."

"I can carry you farther than any ship could take you," said the snake.

He coiled himself around the little prince's ankle, like a golden bracelet. "Whoever I touch, I send back to the earth from where they came. But you are innocent and true, and you come from a star."

The little prince made no reply.

"I can help you, some day, if you grow too homesick for your own planet," the snake said.

"Oh! I understand you very well," said the little prince. "But why do you always speak in riddles?"

"I solve them all," said the snake. And they were both silent.