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From last week...
"You move me to pity- you are so weak on this Earth made of granite," the snake said. "I can help you, some day, if you grow too homesick for your own planet. I can-"
"Oh! I understand you very well," said the little prince. "But why do you always speak in riddles?"
"I solve them all," said the snake.
And they were both silent.
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The little prince crossed the desert and met with only one flower. It was a flower with three petals, a flower of no account at all.
"Good morning," said the little prince.
"Good morning," said the flower.
"Where are the men?" the little prince asked, politely.
The flower had once seen a caravan passing.
"Men?" she echoed. "I think there are six or seven of them in existence. I saw them, several years ago. But one never knows where to find them. The wind blows them away. They have no roots, and that makes their life very difficult."
"Goodbye," said the little prince.
"Goodbye," said the flower.
After that, the little prince climbed a high mountain. The only mountains he had ever known were the three volcanoes, which came up to his knees. And he used the extinct volcano as a footstool. "From a mountain as high as this one," he said to himself, "I shall be able to see the whole planet at one glance, and all the people. . . "
But he saw nothing, save peaks of rock that were sharpened like needles.
"Good morning," he said courteously.
"Good morning-Good morning-Good morning," answered the echo.
"Who are you?" said the little prince.
"Who are you-Who are you-Who are you?" answered the echo.
"Be my friends. I am all alone," he said.
"I am all alone-all alone-all alone," answered the echo.
"What a queer planet!" he thought. "It is altogether dry, and altogether pointed, and altogether harsh and forbidding. And the people have no imagination. They repeat whatever one says to them. . .On my planet I had a flower; she always was the first to speak. . . "
To be continued...
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Taking place on Saturday March 24th, The Eastern Hotel will be opening its doors to the newly refurbished Ruby Lounge to raise much needed funds for the Cancer Council of New South Wales.
