The Selfish Giant

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The Selfish giant

  Note : Question & Answers included.

Every afternoon, as they were coming from school, the children used to go and play in the Giant’s garden. It was a large lovely garden, with soft green grass. Here and there over the grass stood beautiful flowers like stars, and there were twelve peach-trees that in the spring-time broke out into delicate blossoms of pink and pearl, and in the autumn bore rich fruit. The birds sat on the trees and sang so sweetly that the children used to stop their games in order to listen to them. “How happy we are here!” they cried to each other.

One day the Giant came back. He had been to visit his friend the Cornish ogre, and had stayed with him for seven years. After the seven years were over he had said all that he had to say, for his conversation was limited, and he determined to return to his own castle. When he arrived he saw the children playing in the garden. “What are you doing here?” he cried in a very gruff voice, and the children ran away. “My own garden is my own garden,” said the Giant, “any one can understand that, and I will allow nobody to play in it but myself,” So he built a high wall all round it, and put up a notice board.

TRESPASSERS will be PROSECUTED

He was a very selfish Giant. The poor children had now nowhere to play. They tried to play on the road, but the road was very dusty and full of hard stones, and they did not like it. They used to wander round the high walls when their lessons were over, and talk about the beautiful garden inside. “How happy we were there,” they said to each other. Then the Spring came, and all over the country 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 as there were no children, and the trees forgot to blossom. Once a beautiful flower put its head out from the grass, but when it saw 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 people 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 Forest 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 till he broke most of the slates, and then he ran round and round the garden as fast as he could go. He was dressed

in grey, and 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.

One morning the Giant was lying awake in bed when he heard some lovely music. It sounded so sweet to his ears that he thought it must be the King’s musicians passing by. It was really only a little linnet singing outside the window, but it was so long since he had heard a bird sing in his garden that it seemed to him to be the most melodious music in the world. Then the Hail stopped dancing over his head, and the North Wind ceased roaring, and a delicious perfumecame to him through the open casement. “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. And the trees were so glad to have the children back again that hey 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. It was a lovely scene, only in one corner it was still winter. It was the farthest corner of the garden, and in it was standing a little boy. 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 quite covered with frost and snow, and the North Wind was blowing and roaring above it. “Climb up! Little boy,” said the Tree, and it bent its branches down as low as it could, but the boy was too tiny.

And 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, and my garden shall be the children’s playground for ever and ever.” He was really very sorry for what he had done.

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. And the Giant stole up behind him and took him gently in his hand, and put him up into the tree. And 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 flung them round the Giant’s neck, and kissed him. And the other children, when they saw that the Giant was not wicked any longer, 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. And when the people were going to market at twelve o’clock they found the Giant playing with the children in the most beautiful garden  they had ever seen. All day long they played, and in the evening they came to the Giant to bid him good-bye. “But where is your little companion?” he said, “the boy I put into the tree.” The Giant loved him the best because he had kissed him. “We don’t know,” answered the children, “he has gone away.” “You must tell him to be sure and come here tomorrow,” said the Giant. But the children said that they did not know where he lived, and had never seen him before; and the Giant felt very sad.

 

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. “How I would like to see him!” he used to say. 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, and watched the children at their games, and admired his garden. “I have many beautiful flowers,” he said, “but the children are the most beautiful flowers of all.” One winter morning he looked out of his window as he was dressing. He did not hate the Winter now, for he knew that it was merely the Spring asleep, and that the flowers were resting. Suddenly he rubbed his eyes in wonder, and looked and looked. It certainly was a marvelous sight. In the farthest corner of the garden was a tree quite covered with lovely white blossoms. Its branches were all golden, and silver fruit hung down from them, and underneath it stood the little boy he had loved. Downstairs ran the Giant in great joy, and out into the garden. He hastened across the grass, and came near to the child. And when he came quite close his face grew red with anger, and he said, “Who hath dared to wound thee?” For on the palms of the child’s hands were the prints of two nails, and the prints of two nails were on the little feet. “Who hath dared to wound thee?” cried the Giant, “tell me, that I may take my big sword and slay him.”

“Nay!” answered the child, “but these are the wounds of Love.”

“Who art thou?” said the Giant, and a strange awe fell on him, and he knelt before the little child.

And the child smiled on the Giant, and said to him, “You let me play once in your garden, today you shall come with me to my garden, which is Paradise.”  And when the children ran in that afternoon, they found the Giant lying dead under the tree, all covered with white blossoms.

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Questions and Answers:

 

1. At what time the children used to play in Giant’s garden?

Ans: Every afternoon.

 

2. Which tree and how much was there in the garden?

Ans: Twelve peach-trees

 

3. How the trees looked in spring?

Ans: They broke out in blossoms of pink and pearl.

 

4. How the trees were in autumn?

Ans: They bore rich fruit.

 

5. The Giant returned from where?

Ans: After visiting his friend Cornish Ogre.

 

6. For how many years did the Giant stayed with his friend?

Ans: 7 years.

 

7. What did the Giant do when he saw the children playing in his garden?

Ans: He did not like the children playing in his garden and made them go away.

 

8. What was written on the board which the Giant put up?

Ans: Trespassers will be prosecuted.

 

9. Does the children have any other place to play now?

Ans: No.

 

10. Why did the children did not play on the road?

Ans: The road was very dusty and had hard stones on it.

 

11. What was the there in the garden when spring came in the whole country?

Ans: winter.

 

12. Who were the only pleased people to visit the Giant’s garden?

Ans: Snow and frost.

 

13. How the snow covered the grass?

Ans: White cloak

 

14. How the frost painted the tree?

Ans: They painted the trees silver.

 

15. To whom the snow and frost invite?

Ans: The north wind.

 

16. To whom the north wind invited?

Ans: The Hail

 

17. What did the hail do in the garden?

Ans: He on the roof for three hours and danced around the garden.

 

18. What did the giant thought when spring didn’t came to his garden?

Ans: He thought there may be some change in the weather.

 

19. What was there throughout the year in Giant’s garden?

Ans: Only Winter. No spring and no autumn

 

20. What did the Giant thought when he heard the lovely music?

Ans: The King’s musician may be passing by.

 

21. Who actually was singing the music?

Ans: A bird.

 

22. What did the Giant say when he looked out of the bed?

Ans: The children were playing.

 

23. Through which the children came to the garden?

Ans: Through a little hole in the wall.

 

24. Why the spring did not come in the corner of the garden?

Ans: As there was no child on the tree and only a little boy was trying to claim it.

 

25. Why the little boy did not ran away when Giant was coming?

Ans: As his eyes was full of tears, he did not see the Giant coming.

 

26. What did the Giant do to the little boy?

Ans: He helped him claim the tree by raising him up.

 

27. What did the little boy do in return to the Giant?

Ans: He put his hand around him and kissed him.

 

28. What did the Giant do to the wall after the arrival of spring?

Ans: He took a axe and broke the wall.

 

29. For whom the giant was waiting all days?

Ans: For the little boy.

 

30. What were the beautiful flowers according to the Giant?

Ans: The children

 

31. What did the children say when Giant asked about the little boy?

Ans: They said they did not know from where he came.

 

32. Why there was still blossom in one tree in the corner of the garden even after the arrival of the winter?

Ans: As the little boy was standing underneath.

 

33. What did the Giant see in the palm and feet of the little boy?

Ans: Wounds made by nails.

 

34. What did the little boy say about the wounds?

Ans: They were the wounds of love

 

35. To which place the little boy invited the Giant?

Ans: To his garden- The Paradise.

 

36. What was covering when the giant was dead?

Ans: White blossoms.

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