第二天我干完活，天快黑了，看到小王子坐在水井边的断墙上说着话。 这时，我发现墙根下有一条致命的毒蛇。我跑过去，蛇被吓跑了。我正好接住跳下来脸色发白的小王子。我感到奇怪：他居然和蛇说话！ 我把他抱在怀里。他说，他要回去了。 我感到他受到了惊吓，他说今晚还有更大的惊吓。 他说，他的星星就在降落的上方，自己的花儿就在星星上。现在看到所有的星星都感到亲切，就像我抬头看他的那颗星星，虽然很小，只是其中的一颗。但我会爱这满天的星星的。他们都会是我的朋友，他给我的不是星星，而是会笑的铃铛。 说完小王子笑了起来，说这笑声是给我的礼物。 他又告诉我，今天晚上他就要走了。 他悄悄地向前走去，我追上他，执著地说决不离开他。他说因为太远，没法带走这个躯体。并告诉我说看到这满天的星星，每个星星上都有水井，都会倒水给自己喝。 他说要对他的花儿负责，然后向前跨了一步，脚下一道黄光一闪，小王子便无声地倒下了。 - the little prince converses with the snake; the little prince consoles the narrator; the little prince returns to his planet       Beside the well there was the ruin of an old stone wall. When I came back from my work, the next evening, I saw from some distance away my little price sitting on top of a wall, with his feet dangling. And I heard him say:  "Then you don't remember. This is not the exact spot."  Another voice must have answered him, for he replied to it:  "Yes, yes! It is the right day, but this is not the place."  I continued my walk toward the wall. At no time did I see or hear anyone. The little prince, however, replied once again:  "--Exactly. You will see where my track begins, in the sand. You have nothing to do but wait for me there. I shall be there tonight."  I was only twenty metres from the wall, and I still saw nothing.  After a silence the little prince spoke again:  "You have good poison? You are sure that it will not make me suffer too long?"  I stopped in my tracks, my heart torn asunder; but still I did not understand.  "Now go away," said the little prince. "I want to get down from the wall."  I dropped my eyes, then, to the foot of the wall-- and I leaped into the air. There before me, facing the little prince, was one of those yellow snakes that take just thirty seconds to bring your life to an end. Even as I was digging into my pocked to get out my revolver I made a running step back. But, at the noise I made, the snake let himself flow easily across the sand like the dying spray of a fountain, and, in no apparent hurry, disappeared, with a light metallic sound, among the stones.  I reached the wall just in time to catch my little man in my arms; his face was white as snow.  "What does this mean?" I demanded. "Why are you talking with snakes?"  I had loosened the golden muffler that he always wore. I had moistened his temples, and had given him some water to drink. And now I did not dare ask him any more questions. He looked at me very gravely, and put his arms around my neck. I felt his heart beating like the heart of a dying bird, shot with someone's rifle...  "I am glad that you have found what was the matter with your engine," he said. "Now you can go back home--"  "How do you know about that?"  I was just coming to tell him that my work had been successful, beyond anything that I had dared to hope.  He made no answer to my question, but he added:  "I, too, am going back home today..."  Then, sadly--  "It is much farther... it is much more difficult..."  I realised clearly that something extraordinary was happening. I was holding him close in my arms as if he were a little child; and yet it seemed to me that he was rushing headlong toward an abyss from which I could do nothing to restrain him...  His loo