The Selfish Giant

Part One · The Wall

Every afternoon, on their way home from school, the children used to go and play in the Giant's garden. It was a large and lovely garden, carpeted with soft green grass, and here and there above the grass stood beautiful flowers like stars. There were twelve peach trees that in springtime broke out into delicate blossoms of pink and pearl, and in the autumn bore magnificent fruit. The birds perched in the branches and sang so sweetly that the children would interrupt their games to listen to them. "How happy we are here!" they called to one another, and the garden seemed to agree with them completely.

One day the Giant returned. He had been visiting his friend, the Cornish ogre, and had remained with him for seven years. When those seven years were over, he had said everything he had to say, because his conversation was limited, and he decided to return to his own castle. When he arrived, he discovered the children playing in the garden. "What are you doing here?" he roared in a very gruff voice, and the children scattered in every direction. "My own garden is my own garden," said the Giant. "Anyone can understand that, and I will allow nobody to play in it but myself."

So he constructed a high wall all around it and fastened up a notice board that announced, in enormous letters, that trespassers would be prosecuted. He was a very selfish giant. The poor children now had nowhere to play. They attempted to play on the road, but the road was extremely dusty and full of hard stones, and they did not enjoy it. They used to wander around the high wall when their lessons were over and talk about the beautiful garden on the other side. "How happy we were there," they said to each other, sadly, remembering the peach trees and the singing birds.

Part Two · The Endless Winter

Then the spring came, and all over the countryside there were little blossoms and little birds. Only in the garden of the Selfish Giant it was still winter. The birds did not care to sing in it, since there were no children, and the trees forgot to blossom. Once a beautiful flower put its head out from the grass, but when it noticed the notice board, it was so sorry for the children that it slipped back into the ground again and went off to sleep. The only creatures who were pleased were the Snow and the Frost. "Spring has forgotten this garden," they cried, "so we will live here all the year round."

The Snow covered up the grass with her great white cloak, and the Frost painted all the trees silver. Then they invited the North Wind to stay with them, and he came. He was wrapped in furs, and he roared all day about the garden and blew the chimney pots down. "This is a delightful spot," he said. "We must ask the Hail on a visit." So the Hail came. Every day for three hours he rattled on the roof of the castle until he broke most of the slates, and then he ran round and round the garden as fast as he could go. His breath was like ice.

"I cannot understand why the spring is so late in coming," said the Selfish Giant, as he sat at the window and looked out at his cold, white garden. "I hope there will be a change in the weather." But the spring never came, nor the summer. The autumn gave golden fruit to every garden, but to the Giant's garden she gave none. "He is too selfish," she said. So it was always winter there, and the North Wind, and the Hail, and the Frost, and the Snow danced about through the trees, while the Giant shivered in his enormous, empty castle and wondered what had gone wrong.

Part Three · The Little Boy in the Corner

One morning the Giant was lying awake in bed when he heard some lovely music. It sounded so sweet that he thought it must be the king's musicians. It was really only a little linnet singing outside his window, but it was so long since he had heard a bird sing in his garden that it seemed to him the most beautiful music in the world. Then the Hail stopped dancing over his head, and the North Wind ceased roaring, and a delicious perfume came to him through the open window. "I believe the spring has come at last," said the Giant, and he jumped out of bed and looked out.

He saw a most wonderful sight. Through a little hole in the wall the children had crept in, and they were sitting in the branches of the trees. In every tree that he could see there was a little child. The trees were so glad to have the children back again that they had covered themselves with blossoms and were waving their arms gently above the children's heads. The birds were flying about and twittering with delight, and the flowers were looking up through the green grass and laughing. Only in one corner of the garden was it still winter, the farthest corner, where a little boy was standing.

He was so small that he could not reach up to the branches of the tree, and he was wandering all round it, crying bitterly. The poor tree was still covered with frost and snow. "Climb up, little boy," said the tree, and it bent its branches down as low as it could, but the boy was too tiny. The Giant's heart melted as he looked out. "How selfish I have been!" he said. "Now I know why the spring would not come here. I will put that poor little boy on the top of the tree, and then I will knock down the wall."

So he crept downstairs and opened the front door quite softly, and went out 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. The Giant stole up behind him, took him gently in his hand, and placed him in the tree. The tree broke at once into blossom, and the birds came and sang on it, and the little boy stretched out his two arms and kissed the Giant.

When the other children saw that the Giant was not wicked any longer, they came running back, and with them came the spring. "It is your garden now, little children," said the Giant, and he took a great axe and knocked down the wall. When the people were going to market at noon, they found the Giant playing with the children in the most beautiful garden they had ever seen. All day long the children played, and in the evening they came to the Giant to bid him goodbye. "But where is your little companion," he said, "the boy I put into the tree?" The Giant loved him best, because he had kissed him.

"We don't know," answered the children. "He has gone away." Every afternoon, when school was over, the children came and played with the Giant, but the little boy whom the Giant loved was never seen again. The Giant was very kind to all the children, yet he longed for his first little friend and often spoke of him. Years went over, and the Giant grew very old and feeble. He could not play about any more, so he sat in a huge armchair, watching the children at their games.

One winter morning he looked out of his window. He did not hate the winter now, for he knew that it was merely the spring asleep and the flowers resting. Suddenly he rubbed his eyes in wonder. In the farthest corner of the garden was a tree quite covered with lovely white blossoms, its branches golden, and underneath it stood the little boy he had loved. The Giant hurried down in great joy, and the child smiled at him. "You let me play once in your garden," said the boy. "Today you shall come with me to my garden." And the old Giant went with him, peacefully, and was never lonely again.