英中英|15_TheLittlePrincee小王子_|山林_乐明无念

"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 asprinkling-can of fresh water. So, he tended the flower.So, too, she began very quickly to torment him with her vanity-- whichwas, if the truth be known, a little difficult to deal with. One day, forinstance, when she was speaking of her four thorns, she said to the littleprince:"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 Ihave 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," remarkedthe little prince, and added to himself, "This flower is a very complexcreature...""At night I want you to put me under a glass globe. It is very coldwhere you live. In the place I came from--"But she interrupted herself at that point. She had come in the form of aseed. She could not have known anything of any other worlds. Embarassed overhaving let herself be caught on the verge of such a navie untruth, she coughed two or three times, in order toput the little prince in the wrong. "The screen?""I was just going to look for it when you spoke to me..."Then she forced her cough a little more so that he should suffer fromremorse just the same.So the little prince, in spite of all the good will that was inseparablefrom his love, had soon come to doubt her. He had taken seriously words whichwere without importance, and it made him very unhappy."I ought not to have listened to her," he confided to me oneday. "One never ought to listen to the flowers. One should simply look atthem and breathe their fragrance. Mine perfumed all my planet. But I did notknow how to take pleasure in all her grace. This tale of claws, which disturbedme so much, should only have filled my heart with tenderness and pity."And he continued his confidences:"The fact is that I did not know how to understand anything! I oughtto have judged by deeds and not by words. She cast her fragrance and herradiance over me. I ought never to have run away from her... I ought to haveguessed all the affection that lay behind her poor little strategems. Flowersare so inconsistent! But I was too young to know how to love her..."