Explore Chapter 24 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.
It was now the eighth day since my accident in the desert, and I had heard the story of the merchant with the first drop of water. I was also thirsty for this water. But the little prince was tired, so he sat down, and I sat down next to him. After a short silence, he spoke again: "The stars are beautiful because of a flower that we cannot see."
I replied, "Yes, that is true." And without saying anything more, I looked at the lines of sand that stretched out before us in the moonlight.
And that was true. I have always loved the desert. You sit on a sand dune in the desert, see nothing, hear nothing. Yet through the silence, something beats and shines...
"What makes the desert beautiful," said the little prince, "is that somewhere it hides a well..."
I was surprised by a sudden understanding of the desert's secret glow. When I was a boy, I lived in an old house, and there was a story that a treasure was buried there. Of course, no one ever knew how to find it; maybe no one ever even looked for it. But it put a magic spell on that house. My home was hiding a secret deep in its heart...
"Yes," I said to the little prince. "The house, the stars, the desert—what makes them beautiful is something we cannot see!"
"I am glad," he said, "that you agree with my fox."
As the little prince fell asleep, I picked him up in my arms and started walking again. I felt deeply touched and emotional. It seemed to me that I was carrying a very delicate treasure. It even seemed to me that there was nothing more delicate on all Earth. In the moonlight, I looked at his pale forehead, his closed eyes, his locks of hair trembling in the wind, and I said to myself: "What I see here is only a shell. What is most important is invisible..."
As his lips opened slightly with what looked like a half-smile, I said to myself again: "What moves me so deeply about this little prince sleeping here is his loyalty to a flower—the picture of a rose that shines through his whole being like the light of a lamp, even when he is asleep..." And I felt he was even more delicate. I felt I needed to protect him, as if he himself were a flame that could be blown out by a small gust of wind...