It was then that the viewer appeared.
"I am a viewer," said the viewer.
"Come and play with me," proposed the streamer. "I am so unhappy."
"I cannot play with you," the viewer said. "I am not tamed."
"What does that mean-- 'tame'?"
"It is an act too often neglected," said the viewer. It means to establish ties. To me, you are still nothing more than a little girl who is just like a hundred thousand other little girls. And I have no need of you. And you, on your part, have no need of me. To you, I am nothing more than a viewer like a hundred thousand other vieweres. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world..."
"My life is very monotonous," the viewer said. "But if you tame me, it will be as if the sun came to shine on my life . I shall know the sound of a step that will be different from all the others. Other steps send me hurrying back underneath the ground. Yours will call me, like music, out of my burrow. And then look: you see the grain-fields down yonder? I do not eat bread. Wheat is of no use to me. The wheat fields have nothing to say to me. And that is sad. But you have hair that is the colour of gold. Think how wonderful that will be when you have tamed me! The grain, which is also golden, will bring me back the thought of you. And I shall love to listen to the wind in the wheat..."
"What must I do, to tame you?" asked the streamer.
"You must be very patient," replied the viewer. "First you will sit down at a little distance from me-- like that-- in the grass. I shall look at you out of the corner of my eye, and you will say nothing. Words are the source of misunderstandings. But you will sit a little closer to me, every day..."
The next day the streamer came back.
"It would have been better to come back at the same hour," said the viewer. "If, for example, you come at four o'clock in the afternoon, then at three o'clock I shall begin to be happy. I shall feel happier and happier as the hour advances. At four o'clock, I shall already be worrying and jumping about. I shall show you how happy I am! But if you come at just any time, I shall never know at what hour my heart is to be ready to greet you... One must observe the proper rites..."
So the streamer tamed the viewer. And when the hour of his departure drew near--
"Ah," said the viewer, "I shall cry."
"It is your own fault," said the streamer. "I never wished you any sort of harm; but you wanted me to tame you..."
"Yes, that is so," said the viewer.
"But now you are going to cry!" said the streamer.
"Yes, that is so," said the viewer.
"Then it has done you no good at all!"
"It has done me good," said the viewer, "because of the color of the wheat fields."
"Goodbye," said the viewer. "And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
"People have forgotten this truth," said the viewer. "But you must not forget it. You become responsible, FOREVER, for what you have tamed."