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, and he determined to
return to his own castle. When he arrived, he saw the children playing
in the garden.

"What are you doing there?" he cried in a gruff voice, and the children
ran away.

"My own garden is my own garden," said the Giant; "anyone can understand
that, and I will allow nobody to play in it but myself." So he built a
high wall all around 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 wall when their lessons
were over, and talk about the beautiful garden inside. "How happy we
were there," they said to one another.

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 Frost 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 the garden as fast as he could go. He was dressed in gray, 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