17
"Before they grow so big, the baobabs start out by being little."
"That is strictly correct," I said. "But why do you want the sheep to eat the little
baobabs?"
He answered me at once, "Oh, come, come!", as if he were speaking of
something that was self-evident. And I was obliged to make a great mental
effort to solve this problem, without any assistance.
Indeed, as I learned, there were on the planet where the little prince lived-- as
on all planets-- good plants and bad plants. In consequence, there were good
seeds from good plants, and bad seeds from bad plants. But seeds are
invisible. They sleep deep in the heart of the earth's darkness, until some one
among them is seized with the desire to awaken. Then this little seed will
stretch itself and begin-- timidly at first-- to push a charming little sprig
inoffensively upward toward the sun. If it is only a sprout of radish or the sprig
of a rose-bush, one would let it grow wherever it might wish. But when it is a
bad plant, one must destroy it as soon as possible, the very first instant that
one recognizes it.
Now there were some terrible seeds on the planet that was the home of the
little prince; and these were the seeds of the baobab. The soil of that planet
was infested with them. A baobab is something you will never, never be able
to get rid of if you attend to it too late. It spreads over the entire planet. It
bores clear through it with its roots. And if the planet is too small, and the
baobabs are too many, they split it in pieces...
18
"It is a question of discipline," the little prince said to me later on. "When
you've finished your own toilet in the morning, then it is time to attend to the
toilet of your planet, just so, with the greatest care. You must see to it that you
pull up regularly all the baobabs, at the very first moment when they can be
distinguished from the rosebushes which they resemble so closely in their
earliest youth. It is very tedious work," the little prince added, "but very easy."
And one day he said to me: "You ought to make a beautiful drawing, so that
the children where you live can see exactly how all this is. That would be very
useful to them if they were to travel some day. Sometimes," he added, "there
is no harm in putting off a piece of work until another day. But when it is a
matter of baobabs, that always means a catastrophe. I knew a planet that
was inhabited by a lazy man. He neglected three little bushes..."
So, as the little prince described it to me, I have made a drawing of that planet.
I do not much like to take the tone of a moralist. But the danger of the
baobabs is so little understood, and such considerable risks would be run by
19
anyone who might get lost on an asteroid, that for once I am breaking through
my reserve. "Children," I say plainly, "watch out for the baobabs!"
My friends, like myself, have been skirting this danger for a long time, without
ever knowing it; and so it is for them that I have worked so hard over this
drawing. The lesson which I pass on by this means is worth all the trouble it
has cost me.
Perhaps you will ask me, "Why are there no other drawing in this book as
magnificent and impressive as this drawing of the baobabs?"
The reply is simple. I have tried. But with the others I have not been
successful. When I made the drawing of the baobabs I was carried beyond
myself by the inspiring force of urgent necessity.
20
Chapter 6
the little prince and the narrator talk about sunsets
Oh, little prince! Bit by bit I came to understand the secrets of your sad little
life... For a long time you had found your only entertainment in the quiet
pleasure of looking at the sunset. I learned that new detail on the morning of
the fourth day, w hen you said to me:
"I am very fond of sunsets. Come, let us go look at a sunset now."
"But we must wait," I said.
"Wait? For what?"
"For the sunset. We must wait until it is time."
At first you seemed to be very much surprised. And then you laughed to
yourself. You said to me:
"I am always thinking that I am at home!"
Just so. Everybody knows that when it is noon in the United States the sun is
setting over France.
If you could fly to France in one minute, you could go straight into the sunset,
right from noon. Unfortunately, France is too far away for that. But on your tiny
planet, my little prince, all you need do is move your chair a few steps. You
can see the day end and the twilight falling whenever you like...
"One day," you said to me, "I saw the sunset forty-four times!"
21
And a little later you added:
"You know-- one loves the sunset, when one is so sad..."
"Were you so sad, then?" I asked, "on the day of the forty-four sunsets?"
But the little prince made no reply.
22
Chapter 7
the narrator learns about the secret of the little
prince's life
On the fifth day-- again, as always, it was thanks to the sheep-- the secret of
the little prince's life was revealed to me. Abruptly, without anything to lead up
to it, and as if the question had been born of long and silent meditation on his
problem, he demanded:
"A sheep-- if it eats little bushes, does it eat flowers, too?"
"A sheep," I answered, "eats anything it finds in its reach."
"Even flowers that have thorns?"
"Yes, even flowers that have thorns."
"Then the thorns-- what use are they?"
I did not know. At that moment I was very busy trying to unscrew a bolt that
had got stuck in my engine. I was very much worried, for it was becoming
clear to me that the breakdown of my plane was extremely serious. And I had
so little drinking-water left that I had to fear for the worst.
"The thorns-- what use are they?"
The little prince never let go of a question, once he had asked it. As for me, I
was upset over that bolt. And I answered with the first thing that came into my
head:
"The thorns are of no use at all. Flowers have thorns just for spite!"
"Oh!"
There was a moment of complete silence. Then the little prince flashed back
at me, with a kind of resentfulness:
"I don't believe you! Flowers are weak creatures. They are na
飗
e. They
reassure themselves as best they can. They believe that their thorns are
terrible weapons..."
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