eng
competition

Text Practice Mode

The Little Prince - chapter 5, part 2

created Today, 02:41 by stanaass


0


Rating

359 words
87 completed
00:00
"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.

saving score / loading statistics ...