11.2 - The Giant's Garden Story

This story is about a Giant and his garden. In the beginning of the story, the Giant has been away for seven years visiting a friend, and all the children in the town play in his garden after school, because it is very beautiful. But then the Giant returns and he doesn't like the children to play in his garden, so he builds a wall around it and posts a sign to keep ou the children, which saddens them because they have no where else to play. Because the Giant is selfish, Spring, Summer, and Autumn punish him by not returning to his garden. So it is always Winter there, and the weather is terrible and cold, and all the while the children look for a way back into the garden. But then, the next Spring, the Giants wakes to a bird singing outside his window, because the children found a way back into the garden. And because the children returned to the garden, the trees bloomed and the flowers grew and Winter left all but one corner, where one of the children was too little to climb into the tree and have it bloom. And that made the Giant sad, so he went out and picked up the child and put him in the tree, which showed the other children that he wasn't selfish and cruel anymore, and the Giant knocked down the wall so they were allowed to play in the garden from then on. But the little boy the Giant helped never came back, and no one knew who he was. But then, years later, the boy came back to the garden, when the Giant was very old. And the Giant happily ran out to him. But when he reached him, he saw the marks of nails in his hands and feet, and the Giant wanted to know who had done it so he could hurt whoever had done it to him. But the little boy told him they were marks of Love, and that he had come to take the Giant to his garde, Paradise. And the next day the children came and found the Giant dead under the tree, covered in white flowers.