Chapter 5 🔊✎

Every day I learned something new, about his planet, about how he left, about his long voyage. 🔊✎ I got it piece by piece, depending on what he was talking about. 🔊✎ That is how, on the third day, I heard the terrible story of the baobabs. 🔊✎

Once again it was thanks to the sheep, because suddenly the little prince asked me, in a tone of great concern:

“Sheep eat bushes, do n’t they?” 🔊✎

“Yes. They do.” 🔊✎

“Ah! That’s good.” 🔊✎

I could n’t understand why it was so important that sheep ate bushes. 🔊✎ But the little prince added:

“So in that case they eat baobabs as well?” 🔊✎

I told the little prince that baobabs are not bushes, but huge trees the size of churches, and that even if he brought a whole herd of elephants they would not manage to eat a single baobab. 🔊✎ The idea of a herd of elephants made the little prince laugh: 🔊✎

“You’d have to put them on top of each other…” 🔊✎

But then he said very sensibly:

“Remember, before baobabs get big, they start off small.” 🔊✎

“That’s true! But why do you want your sheep to eat little baobabs?” 🔊✎

“Well! Ca n’t you see!” he answered, as though it was obvious. 🔊✎ And I had to think long and hard to figure it out by myself. 🔊✎

Indeed, on the planet of the little prince, as on all planets, there were good plants and bad plants. 🔊✎ The good plants grew from good seeds and the bad plants from bad seeds. 🔊✎ But seeds are invisible. 🔊✎ They sleep hidden far underground until one of them gets the idea of awakening. 🔊✎ Then it stretches itself shyly towards the surface and pushes up a charming, harmless-looking little shoot in the direction of the sun. 🔊✎ If that shoot is a radish or a rose, you can let it carry on growing as it wants. 🔊✎

But if it’s a bad plant, you need to pull up that plant as soon as you have recognised it. 🔊✎ And there were terrible seeds on the little prince’s planet, the seeds of baobabs. 🔊✎ The ground was infested with them. 🔊✎ And if you wait too long before trying to deal with a baobab, you’ll never get rid of it. 🔊✎ It will fill up the whole planet. It will bore through it with its roots. 🔊✎ And if the planet is too small, and there are too many baobabs, they’ll split it into pieces. 🔊✎

“It’s a question of discipline,” the little prince told me later. 🔊✎ “When you’ve finished your morning routine, then you need to take care of the planet’s morning routine as well. 🔊✎ You need to get used to checking everything regularly and pulling up the baobabs as soon as you can see they are n’t roses. 🔊✎ They look a lot like roses when they’re small. 🔊✎ It’s a boring job, but very easy.” 🔊✎

And one day he advised me to try my best to make a really good picture, so that children on Earth could understand what this was about. 🔊✎ “If they go out travelling one day,” he said, “it will be important for them. 🔊✎ There are times when it makes no difference to put something off until another day. 🔊✎ But if it’s a question of baobabs, that’s a terrible mistake. 🔊✎ I once knew a lazy man who lived on another little planet. 🔊✎ He did n’t notice three bushes...” 🔊✎

And following the little prince’s description, I have drawn that planet. 🔊✎ I hate to get all preachy. But the danger of the baobabs is so little known, and the risks you are taking if you ever get lost on an asteroid are so considerable, that for once I will break my rule. 🔊✎ So I’m telling you plainly: “Kids! Pay attention to those baobabs!” 🔊✎ I have made this drawing to tell you about a terrible danger that’s been right next to us, which you, or I for that matter, did n’t even know was there. 🔊✎ This message is so important that it’s worth all the trouble it took me. 🔊✎ Maybe you’ll ask: “Why are n’t there any other pictures in this book as impressive as the picture of the baobabs?” 🔊✎ The answer is simple. I tried, but I could n’t do it. 🔊✎ When I drew the baobabs, I knew this was urgent. 🔊✎