On the fifth day, the prince asks whether sheep eat flowers, and the pilot says they eat anything they find, including flowers with thorns. This leads the prince to question what purpose the thorns serve. The pilot is worried about running out of water and is busy trying to fix his plane, so he distractedly says that thorns are "just the flowers' way of being mean!" (19). The prince retorts that he doesn't believe that and continues to pester the pilot, who eventually grows annoyed and snaps that he's "busy with something serious" (20), causing the prince to complain that he sounds like a grown-up.

The prince then accuses the pilot of being like a man he knows on another planet, who does nothing but add up numbers and claim he's being serious. Growing angrier, the prince asks why it isn't "serious" to wonder about the purpose of "thorns that are good for nothing," or the "war between the sheep and the flowers" (21). He hints that he knows a flower back on his planet, explaining: "If someone loves a flower of which just one example exists among all the millions and millions of

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