As each day passed I would learn, in our talk, something about the little prince's planet, his
departure from it, his journey. The information would come very slowly, as it might chance to fall
from his thoughts. It was in this way that I heard, on the third day, about the catastrophe of the
baobabs.
This time, once more, I had the sheep to thank for it. For the little prince asked me abruptly--as
if seized by a grave doubt--"It is true, isn't it, that sheep eat little bushes? "
"Yes, that is true. "
"Ah! I am glad! "
I did not understand why it was so important that sheep should eat little bushes. But the little
prince added:
"Then it follows that they also eat baobabs? "
I pointed out to the little prince that baobabs were not little bushes, but. on the contrary, trees
as big as castles; and that even if he took a whole herd of elephants away with him, the herd would
not eat up one single baobab.
The idea of the herd of elephants made the little prince laugh.
"We would have to put them one on top of the other, " he said.
But he made a wise comment:
"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 was 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
someone 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...
"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 plant 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 anyone who might get lost on an asteroid, that for once I
am breaking 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.