CHAPTER 5 – ELEPHANTS

It is six years after my meeting with the little prince. When I think about him, I am sad. But I write about the little prince, because I don’t want to forget him. It is sad when you forget a friend. Not everybody has a friend.

This is the reason why I have paper and colours in my hands now. It is difficult to draw for me when I am old. But I want to do it.

I want to make my pictures very good. But I am not sure if I can do it. One picture is OK, but another picture is not very good. I make some mistakes in the size too. Here the little prince is very big. Here he is very small. Maybe the colour of his clothes is not correct. But I try to draw as well as possible.

But sometimes when my picture is not perfect, it is not my mistake. It is the little prince’s mistake. He never explains things to me. Maybe he thinks that I am like him. But unfortunately, I don’t see the sheep in the box.

Every day, new information about the little prince’s planet comes. I also know more and more about his journey to the Earth. The information comes very slowly. The information comes during moments when the little prince thinks about his past.

For example, on the third day, the little prince speaks about a problem with the baobabs. Baobabs are big trees. The conversation about baobabs starts when the little prince asks me a question about the sheep.

“Is it true that sheep eat little trees?”

“Yes. It is true.”

“It is good.”

I don’t understand why it is so important that sheep eat little trees. But the little prince says, “So they also eat baobabs?”

I tell the little prince that baobabs aren’t little trees, “The baobabs are big trees. The baobabs are very big. They are like houses. And, for example, if you put nine big elephants on your planet, these elephants can’t eat one baobab. The baobabs are so big.”

The idea of ​​nine elephants is funny for the little prince. And he laughs, “On my planet, elephants must stand on elephants.”

But then he says something clever, “When the baobabs are young, they are very small.”

“It is true,” I say. “But why is it important that your sheep eats the little baobabs?”

He says, “It is simple. Think about it. It is not very difficult.”

So I start to think about the problems with baobabs. Soon, I have the answer.