"The fact is that I did not know how to understand anything! I ought to have judged by deeds and not by words. She cast her fragrance and her radiance over me. I ought never to have run away from her... I ought to have guessed all the affection that lay behind her poor little strategems. Flowers are so inconsistent! But I was too young to know how to love her... "
"What does that mean-'tame'?"
"It is an act too often neglected, " said the fox. It means to establish ties. "
But if you tame me, it will be as if the sun came to shine on my life. I shall know the sound of a step that will be different from all the others. Other steps send me hurrying back underneath the ground. Yours will call me, like music, out of my burrow.
I do not eat bread. Wheat is of no use to me. The wheat fields have nothing to say to me. And that is sad. But you have hair that is the colour of gold. Think how wonderful that will be when you have tamed me! The grain, which is also golden, will bring me back the thought of you. And I shall love to listen to the wind in the wheat... "
"It would have been better to come back at the same hour, " said the fox. "If, for example, you come at four o'clock in the afternoon, then at three o'clock I shall begin to be happy. I shall feel happier and happier as the hour advances. At four o'clock, I shall already be worrying and jumping about. I shall show you how happy I am! But if you come at just any time, I shall never know at what hour my heart is to be ready to greet you... "
"Ah, " said the fox, "I shall cry. "
"It is your own fault, " said the little prince. "I never wished you any sort of harm; but you wanted me to tame you... "
"Yes, that is so, " said the fox.
"But now you are going to cry!" said the little prince.
"Yes, that is so, " said the fox.
"Then it has done you no good at all!"
"It has done me good, " said the fox, "because of the color of the wheat fields. "
