Stories

I have chosen to write the story on my own, still being inspired by the one by Ellsworth and reading through it to help with my story line flow

The Selfish Giant

Originally retold by Nick Ellsworth

Edited by Carolann Parr

Once upon a time there was a gentle giant who traveled down to the middle of Moss Hill Forest, from his old home up in the mountains tops, to built himself a castle with a large, beautiful garden. The giant was very proud of his new garden and all the lovely things he placed within. He especially liked when springtime came, when all the new pretty flowers came out, the shrubs blossomed and a warm breeze blew through the branches in his many trees, softly rattling the leaves.

On lovely spring days such as this, the giant liked nothing better to do than to open his window and hear the sound of the local children playing in his garden. They came as the sun began to rise early in the morning, played there all day long until the night sky fell upon the forest. "See you tomorrow, Mr. Giant" they would say, waving to the giant, who gave his silly, toothless grin and slowly waved back as the kids left home.

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One year, the giant decided to return to the mountains to visit his only friend, Horace, who was a giant too, and lived so high up in the mountains he was in the clouds, it was completely barren and nearly always cold. While he was up there, Horace told the gentle giant that he was foolish to let all the was children play with in his garden "I know you" said Horace, taking a big mouthful of apple pie. "You're too soft with those children. You'll let them run around until they have trampled all of your flowers! You mark my words, if you let them play in there all of the time, they will ruin your precious garden!"

The giant thought long and hard about this and came to the conclusion that Horace was right, the children will ruin my precious garden. From that moment on, his heart began to stone over. "Those children don't care at all for my garden" he thought. "They're Just using it to play and have fun. Once they've ruined it, they will just go and find somewhere else play!" This thought angered him. The very next day, he packed all his things, said goodbye to Horace, and with huge strides, walked back down the mountain to the middle of the forest where his castle lived.
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Once he arrived, he opened his gate and saw all the children enjoying themselves as usual. "Get out of my garden!" he yelled at them in his big, booming voice. "Go on, get out! You're not welcome here anymore! The children were very frightened. They had never seen the giant angry before, and they ran away as quickly as they could. As soon as they were gone, the giant began to build a huge wall around his garden so no one could get in. When the wall was finished, he made a sign and nailed it to the garden gate. The sign read: Private Property! Keep Out! Then he took a key out of his pocket and locked the gate. "That's that," he said, with a satisfied look on his face, and took himself off to bed.

The next day, it started to get much colder. Winter had arrived, and with it the hail, ice and snow. But when spring came around again, and the birds began to sing and the flowers started to bloom, it was still winter inside the giant's garden. When the giant looked out of his window, he couldn't understand why winter had stayed. He missed seeing the lovely flowers and hearing the birds who nested in his trees, and he became very sad. Years passes and the seasons came and went, but nothing changed

and bleak, and nothing would

Years passed, and the seasons came

inside the giant's garden. It was cold

grow. Once, when a small flower peeked its head above the ground, it

quickly went back down again when it saw that the giant's garden was

so unwelcoming.

One day, some children were passing by and wondered what lay behind

the huge wall. They made a small hole and crawled through the wall

into the garden. Each child climbed a tree, laughing and joking as they

went higher and higher. When the giant pulled back his curtains, a big

grin spread across his face. His garden was beautiful again! AIl the

flowers were out, the grass was green and luscious, the bees were busy

buzzing but, best of all, he heard the laughter of excited children high

up in the trees, throwing blossom over themselves.

"Spring has finally returned!" he cried, and rushed outside.

But in the farthest corner of the garden, the giant saw a sad sight. A little boy was crying because he wasn't tall enough to climb a tree.

Seeing the boy so upset, melted the giant's heart. He reached down,

picked the boy up and gently sat him in the branches of a tree.

"Ive been so selfish, not allowing the children to play in my garden," he

thought. "No wonder winter wanted to stay."

But when the other children saw him, they became scared and started to

run away.

"Don't go," pleaded the giant. "This is your garden now. Look!"

Then he fetched the biggest axe he could find and knocked down the

wall down until it was nothing but dust.

When the people of the town passed by, they couldn't believe what they saw. The giant was enjoying himself! He was lving in the middle of the

garden, laughing uncontrollably as the children clambered and played

all over him.

From that day on, the children came to play in the giant's garden

whenever they could. Often, the giant would play with them and, in the

warm evenings, tell them stories of his ancestors who had never been

out of the mountains.

As the giant got older, it became more difficult for him to move around,so he liked to sit in his big armchair by the window, watching the

children playing in the garden.

What a stupid giant I was before," he'd think, "building a wall that

kept me away from all this happiness. Thank goodness I realized my

mistake.

Then he'd shut his eyes and, with the sound of children's laughter

ringing in his ears, he'd fall into a long, contented sleep.