The Selfish Giant
A giant gets angry when he finds children playing in his garden.
1888
Introduction
A giant has been staying with his friend the Cornish ogre; but after seven years he has run out of conversation, and come home.
ALL the children of the village played in the garden of an empty house, until one day the owner, who was a Giant, came back.
The sight of all those children in his garden made him angry, so he built a stout wall around it, and put up a notice saying ‘Trespassers will be Prosecuted’.
When Spring came, winter did not leave that garden, but for a whole year snow and hail and the North wind played there instead of the children.
Then one morning, the Giant heard a linnet trilling in a tree, and when he looked out he saw with gladness that Spring had come, and the children were back in his garden, climbing trees in blossom.
He crept into the garden as quietly as he could, but the children heard him and ran for their lives.
And then his eyes fell on one tree that was still bare, and one a tiny boy who was crying because he could not climb it.