The prince left his planet to see the world. He visited six others before he came to Earth.

The first was the planet of a king. The king was wrapped in royal purple and ermine. His throne was splendid, and it was also the whole planet, more or less. When he saw the prince, he cried out: Ah, here is a subject!

The prince looked around. He was the only one there.

How can he know me? he thought. He has never seen me before.

He did not know that, for kings, the whole world is made of subjects.

The king, to seem important, forbade him to yawn. The prince, who was very tired, said he could not help it. The king, kind at heart, allowed him to yawn — but then ordered him to yawn, so that the yawning would be a command and not a mistake. The prince blushed. He could not yawn on order.

The king ruled the stars. They all obeyed him, he said, because he only gave orders that were reasonable. If I told the sun to set now, he said, and it refused, the fault would be mine.

At what hour will the sun set this evening? asked the prince.

The king consulted a great calendar. At twenty minutes to eight, he said. And you shall see how well I am obeyed.

The prince left, because the king offered to make him Minister of Justice with only himself to judge. Grown-ups, he thought, are very strange.

If I ordered a general to fly from one flower to another like a butterfly, and the general did not carry out the order, it would not be the general's fault. It would be mine.