Chapter2
So I lived my life alone without anyone that I could really talk to until I had an accident with my plane in the Desert of Sahara six years ago. Something was broken in my engine. And as I had with me neither a mechanic nor any passengers I set myself to attempt the difficult repairs all alone. It was a question of life or death for me: I had scarcely enough drinking water to last a week.

The first night then I went to sleep on the sand a thousand miles from any human habitation. I was more isolated than a shipwrecked sailor on a raft in the middle of the ocean. Thus you can imagine my amazement at sunrise when I was awakened by an odd little voice. It said:

"If you please-- draw me a sheep!"

"What!"

"Draw me a sheep!"

I jumped to my feet completely thunderstruck. I bl<x>inked my eyes hard. I looked carefully all around me. And I saw a most extraordinary small person who stood there examining me with great seriousness. Here you may see the best potrait that later I was able to make of him. But my drawing is certainly very much less charming than its model.

That however is not my fault. The grown-ups discouraged me in my painter's career when I was six years old and I never learned to draw anything except boas from the outside and boas from the inside.

Now I stared at this sudden apparition with my eyes fairly starting out of my head in astonishment. Remember I had crashed in the desert a thousand miles from any inhabited region. And yet my little man seemed neither to be straying uncertainly among the sands nor to be fainting from fatigue or hunger or thirst or fear. Nothing about him gave any suggestion of a child lost in the middle of the desert a thousand miles from any human habitation. When at last I was able to speak I said to him:

"But-- what are you doing here?"

And in answer he repeated very slowly as if he were speaking of a matter of great consequence: "If you please-- draw me a sheep…"

When a mystery is too overpowering one dare not disobey. Absurd as it might seem to me a thousand miles from any human habitation and in danger of death I took out of my pocket a sheet of paper and my fountain-pen. But then I remembered how my studies had been concentrated on geography history arithmetic and grammar and I told the little chap (a little crossly too) that I did not know how to draw. He answered me:

"That doesn't matter. Draw me a sheep…"

But I had never drawn a sheep. So I drew for him one of the two pictures I had drawn so often. It was that of the boa constrictor from the outside. And I was astounded to hear the little fellow greet it with

"No no no! I do not want an elephant inside a boa constrictor. A boa constrictor is a very dangerous creature and an elephant is very cumbersome. Where I live everything is very small. What I need is a sheep. Draw me a sheep."

So then I made a drawing.

He looked at it carefully then he said:

"No. This sheep is already very sickly. Make me another."

So I made another drawing.

My friend smiled gently and indulgenty.

"You see yourself" he said "that this is not a sheep. This is a ram. It has horns."

So then I did my drawing over once more.

But it was rejected too just like the others.

"This one is too old. I want a sheep that will live a long time."

By this time my patience was exhausted because I was in a hurry to start taking my engine apart. So I tossed off this drawing.

And I threw out an explanation with it.

"This is only his box. The sheep you asked for is inside."

I was very surprised to see a light break over the face of my young judge:

"That is exactly the way I wanted it! Do you think that this sheep will have to have a great deal of grass?"

"Why?"

"Because where I live everything is very small…"

"There will surely be enough grass for him" I said. "It is a very small sheep that I have given you."

He bent his head over the drawing:

"Not so small that-- Look! He has gone to sleep…"

And that is how I made the acquaintance of the little prince.


单词
mechanic
n. 技工，机修工;

portrait
n. 肖像，肖像画; 模型，标本; 半身雕塑像; 人物描写;

apparition
n. 幽灵; 特异景象; 鬼; （特异景象等的） 出现;


stray
vi. 走失; 偏离正题; 走入歧途; （已婚者或有固定关系者） 有外遇;
n. 走失的动物，离群者; 迷路的孩子; 不在原位置的东西;
adj. 独自的，零散的; （常指宠物） 走失的; 无主的; 意外的;

faint
adj. 微弱的，模糊的; 软弱的; 无勇气的; 将昏倒似的;
vi. 头晕，昏过去; 渐渐不明，消失;
n. 昏厥，昏倒;

fatigue
n. 疲劳，疲乏; 劳务杂役; （士兵穿的） 工作服;
vt. 使疲劳; 使疲乏;
vi. 疲劳;

cumbersome
adj. 笨重的; 麻烦的; 累赘的，难以携带的; 缓慢复杂的，冗长的;

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