Explore Chapter 13 of 'The Little Prince' with the original English text, English translation, detailed IELTS vocabulary and explanations, and audio of the English original. Listen and improve your reading skills.
The fourth planet was owned by a businessman. He was so busy that he didn't even look up when the little prince arrived.
"Good morning," the little prince said. "Your cigarette is out."
"Three plus two is five. Five plus seven is twelve. Twelve plus three is fifteen. Good morning. Fifteen plus seven is twenty-two. Twenty-two plus six is twenty-eight. I don't have time to light it again. Twenty-six plus five is thirty-one. Whew! So that's five hundred one million, six hundred twenty-two thousand, seven hundred thirty-one."
"Five hundred million of what?" asked the little prince.
"Huh? You're still here? Five hundred one million—I can't stop ... I have too much to do! I deal with important matters. I don't waste time on nonsense. Two plus five is seven."
"Five hundred one million of what?" repeated the little prince. He never gave up on a question once he asked it.
"In the fifty-four years I've lived on this planet, I've been bothered only three times. First, twenty-two years ago, when a silly bird fell from who knows where. It made a terrible noise that echoed everywhere, and I made four mistakes in my math. Second, eleven years ago, I was bothered by a rheumatism attack. I don't exercise enough. I have no time for lazing around. The third time—well, it's now! I was saying, five hundred one millions—"
The businessman suddenly knew that he wouldn't be left alone until he answered.
"Millions of those small things," he said, "that people sometimes see in the sky." "Flies?"
"Oh, no. Small shiny things." "Bees?"
"Oh, no. Small golden things that make lazy people dream idly. But I deal with important matters. There's no time for idle dreaming in my life."
"And what do you do with five hundred million stars?"
"Five hundred one million, six hundred twenty-two thousand, seven hundred thirty-one. I deal with important matters: I am precise."
"Nothing. I own them." "You own the stars?" "Yes."
"Kings don't own, they rule over. It's very different." "And what good is it to own the stars?" "It makes me rich." "And what good is it to be rich?"
"It lets me buy more stars, if any are found." "This man," the little prince thought, "thinks a bit like my poor drunkard ..."
Still, he had more questions.
"Who do they belong to?" the businessman snapped.
"Then they belong to me, because I thought of it first." "Is that all it takes?"
"Certainly. If you find a diamond with no owner, it's yours. If you find an island with no owner, it's yours. If you have an idea before anyone else, you patent it: it's yours. So with me: I own the stars, because no one else thought to own them before me."
"Yes, that's true," said the little prince. "And what do you do with them?"
"I manage them," replied the businessman. "I count them over and over. It's hard. But I'm a man who cares about important things."
"If I owned a silk scarf," he said, "I could wear it and take it with me. If I owned a flower, I could pick it and take it with me. But you can't pick the stars from the sky ..."
"It means I write down how many stars I have on a paper. Then I put the paper in a drawer and lock it with a key."
"It's amusing," thought the little prince. "It's kind of poetic. But it's not very important."
About important matters, the little prince thought very differently from the grown-ups.
"I own a flower," he went on, "that I water every day. I own three volcanoes, that I clean every week (even the dead one; you never know). It's useful to my volcanoes and my flower that I own them. But you're no use to the stars ..."
The businessman opened his mouth, but had nothing to say. And the little prince left.
"Grown-ups are really very strange," he said to himself as he walked on.