The Selfish Giant

The Giant had a big, beautiful garden with soft green grass and sweet flowers.Every afternoon, on their way home from school, the children came to play there.The Giant had been away for seven years, and now he came home and saw the children in his garden.

"My garden is my own garden," he shouted. "No one may play here but me!"The Giant was selfish, so he built a high wall around the garden and put up a sign that said, "Keep out."Now the children had nowhere to play, and the road outside was hard and full of dust and stones.

Then Spring came to all the country, but in the Giant's garden it was still Winter.No birds sang there, the trees did not flower, and cold snow lay on the grass."I don't understand why Spring is so late," the Giant said, looking out at his white, empty garden.

One morning the Giant heard a little bird singing, and he saw that the children had crept back in through a small hole in the wall.They were sitting in the trees, and on every branch where a child sat, the tree had burst into flowers again.But in one corner it was still cold, for a very small boy could not climb up, and he stood by the tree and cried.

The Giant's heart grew soft; he went out quietly and lifted the little boy up into the tree, which at once broke into flowers."It is your garden now, children," said the Giant, and he knocked the wall down with his great hammer.He played with the children all afternoon, but the small boy he loved best was gone, and no one knew where he lived.

Many years passed, and the Giant grew old and weak; then one winter morning he saw the little boy again, under a tree covered with soft white flowers."You once let me play in your garden," the boy said with a smile. "Today you will come and play in mine." That afternoon the children found the Giant lying still under the tree, a peaceful smile on his face, covered all over with white flowers.