The Aviator:
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
The Prince:
It is true, isn't it, that sheep eat little bushes?
The Aviator:
Yes that is true
The Prince:
Ah, I am glad
Then it follows that they also eat baobabs?
The Aviator:
Baobabs are not little bushes
But on the contrary, trees as big as castles
And even if he took a whole herd of elephants away with him
The herd would not eat up one single baobab
The Prince:
We would have to put them one on top of the other
Before they grow so big, the baobabs start out by being little
The Aviator:
That is strictly correct
But why do you want the sheep to eat the little baobabs?
The Prince:
Oh come, come
The Aviator:
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 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 rosebush
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
The Prince:
It is a question of discipline
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 but very easy
The Aviator:
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 someday"
The Prince:
Sometimes 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
The Aviator:
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 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 my drawing
The lesson which I pass on by it means is worth all the trouble it has cost me
When I made the drawing of the baobabs
I was carried beyond myself by the inspiring force of urgent necessity
![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ays2lem1-R0/maxresdefault.jpg)