這一次也是歸功於綿羊，小王子好像突然想到一個嚴重的問題似的問：「真的嗎，綿羊也吃灌木？」
「是的，這是真的。」我說。
「啊！我好高興。」小王子說。
我不懂為什麼綿羊吃不吃灌木這樣重要。小王子又說：「這樣說來，綿羊也吃猢猻樹嗎？」
我說猢猻樹不是灌木，而是像城堡那樣大的樹，甚至整群象也沒辦法把猢猻樹除掉或把一棵猢猻樹吃完。
這一群象的比喻讓小王子笑了。
「他們應該一隻一隻疊起來。」小王子說。
不過之後他又下了一個聰明的結論說：「猢猻樹還沒長大前，也是很小的。」
「沒錯！但你為什麼要綿羊吃它？」
「好吧！等著看吧！」他講的好像那是理所當然的事。可是為了想清處這其中的道理，我卻獨自苦思良久。
事實是這樣的。小王子住的行星和別的行星一樣，有好的草也有壞的草。好的草生出好的種子，壞的草生出壞的種子。可是種子是看不見的，它們在黑暗的土壤裡沉睡，一直到當中有種子被甦醒的慾望給喚醒，然後它探出頭來，朝太陽優雅地伸出一支小小的嫩芽。如果它是蘿蔔或玫瑰的嫩芽，人們可能會希望讓它自己長大，但假如它是壞植物的嫩芽，就要在能夠辨別出來的時候，立刻把他拔掉。
小王子住的的星球上有一些可怕的種子，就是猢猻樹的種子，他們經常埋沒在行星的土壤裡。如果太晚除掉猢猻樹的種子，就永遠也擺脫不掉它了。它會遍佈整個星球，它的根會鑽透整個星球，假如那顆行星太小而猢猻樹太多，整個星球就會崩裂成碎片。
「這是紀律的問題。」小王子接著說：「就好像你在早上如廁之後，也要關照行星的廁所。你必須定期的清理猢猻樹，在能夠從玫瑰叢裡分辨出猢猻樹時（它們小的時候很像），就要刻不容緩地把它除掉。這是很乏味的工作，但很容易。」
有一天跟我說：「你該畫張漂亮的畫，把這些事告訴住在這個行星的孩子們。」他告訴我說：「假如有一天他們出去旅行，這對他們是有幫助的。有時候拖遲工作並沒什麼傷害，但如果那是關係到猢猻樹的事，就意味著一場災禍。我知道有一顆行星上住了一位偷懶鬼，他曾忽略了三棵灌木...」
於是，我照著小王子的描述畫了那顆行星。我不太喜歡用說教方式，可是猢猻樹的危險少為人知，但招致的巨大風險卻能足讓任何人喪失一個行星。於是，我破了例的說：「孩子們！小心猢猻樹！」
為了警告我的朋友們，這個包括我自己在無形中也會面臨到的危險，所以我很努力的畫這張畫，這件事值得我這樣做。也許你會問我：「為什麼這本書裡沒有別的畫像這個猢猻樹那麼大、這麼令人印象深刻？」我的答案很簡單：「我試了，可是沒成功。」我畫猢猻樹的時候，有一種急迫需要的情緒激勵啟發了我的潛力。
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 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 . . .
"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 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.
註：《小王子》是法國童話，法文原書名為Le Petit Prince，作者是聖艾修伯里，1943年在紐約出版，被譯成超過 180種語言，銷售量超過8千萬冊，還有拍成電影和動畫片、改編成話劇和音樂劇演出。
圖片出處：http://www.odaha.com
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