Every afternoon after school, the children would go and play in a big, beautiful garden. It had soft green grass, pretty flowers like stars, and twelve peach trees that bloomed with pink and white flowers in spring and grew juicy fruit in autumn. Birds sang sweet songs, and the children loved to stop and listen. “We are so happy here!” they would say to each other.
One day,
the Giant who owned the garden came back home. He had been away visiting a
friend for seven years. When he arrived, he saw the children playing in his
garden.
“What are
you doing here?” he shouted in a grumpy voice, and the children ran away,
scared. “This is my garden! Only I can play here!” he said. So, he built a high
wall around the garden and put up a sign that said:
NO
TRESPASSING.
The Giant
was very selfish. The children had no place to play now. They tried playing on
the dusty, rocky road, but it wasn’t fun. They missed the lovely garden. “We
were so happy there,” they would sigh as they walked by the high wall.
Then,
spring came. Flowers bloomed and birds sang everywhere—except in the Giant’s
garden, where it stayed cold and wintry. The birds didn’t sing because there
were no children, and the trees didn’t bloom. Once, a little flower peeked out,
but when it saw the sign, it felt sorry for the children and went back into the
ground.
The Giant
wondered, “Why is spring so late this year?” as he looked out at his snowy
garden. But spring never came, nor summer. Autumn brought fruits to every
garden except the Giant’s. “He is too selfish,” Autumn said. So, it was always
winter in the Giant’s garden, with cold winds, frost, and snow.
One
morning, while lying in bed, the Giant heard beautiful music. He thought it was
the King’s musicians, but it was just a little bird singing outside his window.
He hadn’t heard a bird in his garden for so long that it felt like the best
music ever. The icy winds stopped, and a sweet smell filled the air. “Maybe
spring has come at last!” he thought, and he jumped out of bed to look outside.
He saw
something amazing! The children had found a hole in the wall and had crept back
into the garden. They sat in the trees, and the trees were so happy that they
covered themselves with flowers again. Birds flew around, singing joyfully, and
the flowers bloomed, smiling up at the children.
But in
one corner, it was still winter. A little boy stood there, too small to climb
the tree. He walked around it, crying because he couldn’t reach the branches.
The tree tried to bend down, but the boy was still too little.
Seeing
this, the Giant felt sorry. “How selfish I have been!” he thought. “Now I know
why spring didn’t come. I’ll help that little boy and let the children play
here forever.” He felt truly sorry for being unkind.
So, the
Giant quietly went outside. But when the children saw him, they got scared and
ran away, and the garden turned cold again. Only the little boy stayed, too sad
to notice the Giant. The Giant gently lifted the boy and placed him in the
tree. The tree burst into bloom, birds came to sing, and the little boy hugged
the Giant and kissed him.
When the
other children saw that the Giant was kind now, they all came back, and with
them came spring. “This is your garden now, children,” the Giant said with a
smile. He took an axe and knocked down the high wall.
Later that day, when people passed by, they saw the Giant playing happily with the children in the most beautiful garden they had ever seen. And the Giant was never selfish again.
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