The Selfish Giant

A giant who lived in a big house had a beautiful garden, but he never let anyone enter his garden. Whenever he was away, children would come there to play.

One day, the giant decided to visit his friend and left for the neighbouring kingdom. The giant came back from his friend’s place after seven years. Seeing the children play in his garden, he angrily chased them away and built a high wall around the garden.

After the children stopped coming to the garden, the trees and flowers were so sad that they lost their beauty and were covered with snow and frost. No birds came to sing there. Spring was everywhere but in the giant’s garden it was still winter.

One morning, the giant saw children playing in the garden. They had entered through a small hole in the wall. And spring arrived in the garden at last to express its happiness on seeing the children again.

The giant realised that he had been selfish and was very sorry for what he had done. He let the children play in the garden every day. The giant’s favourite among the children was a little boy who had kissed him when he helped him to get on top of the tree. But the little boy stopped coming to the garden and the giant was very sad.

Many years passed and the giant grew old and weak. One winter morning, the giant saw the same boy under a tree. He ran down to the boy in joy. The boy was an angel who had come to take the giant to the garden of Paradise as a reward for letting him play in his garden.