The Selfish Giant – Story

The Selfish Giant/The Selfish Giant And the Children/The Selfish Giant And the Garden

A giant living in a big house had a beautiful garden. But he never let anybody enter his garden. Whenever he stayed away, the children would come there and play. One day the giant deciding to visit his friend’s house left home for the neighboring kingdom. The giant returned from his friend’s palace after seven years.
Coming back, he saw that children were playing in his garden. At this he got furious and chased the children away and built a high wall around the garden. As the children stopped coming and playing in the garden, the trees and flowers were so sad that they lost their beauty and were covered with snow and frost. Neither flowers bloomed nor birds came to sing there. There was spring everywhere but in the giant’s garden, it was still winter. The Giant got anxious for not arrival of spring.
One morning, the Giant got up from bed hearing birds’ chirping. He thought that spring had at last come. But he was stuck with wonder when he saw the children sitting on the branches of the trees. Through a little hole in the wall the children had crept in and spring also had come with them. But only in one corner it was still Winter. In it was standing a little boy. He was too small to reach up to the branches of the tree and he was crying bitterly. And now the Giant could understand everything. His heart melted as he looked out. ‘How selfish I have been!’ he said; ‘now I know why the Spring would not come here. He was really very sorry for what he had done.
Then the Giant entered into the garden. But when the children saw him they were so frightened that they all ran away, and the garden became Winter again. Only the little boy did not run, for his eyes were so full of tears that he did not see the Giant coming. And the Giant stood up behind him and took him gently in his hand, and put him up into the tree. Instantly it was covered with flowers and birds started to sing there. As they saw the giant being no more cruel,the children came back and with them came the spring. ‘It is your garden children’, said the Giant. He then took an axe and knocked down the wall to make it a playground for the children forever.