The giant saw a most wonderful sight. Birds were flying about and singing, and flowers were peeking up through the green grass. The trees were waving their arms softly in the warm wind. Children were running about and sitting in the branches of the trees. It was a lovely scene.
Then the giant saw that more children were crawling through a hole in the wall. The giant's heart melted. “How selfish I have been!” he said. “Now I know why spring would not come here!” The giant made a decision and went out to his garden. “I will knock down the wall!” he said to himself.
When the children saw the giant, they were so scared that they all ran away, and the garden turned to winter again.
But one little boy did not run because he did not see the giant coming. He was trying to reach up to the spreading branches of a tree. The giant took him gently in his hand, and put him up into the tree. At once the tree broke out in blossom. The birds came and sang in it. The little boy stretched out with his arms, put them around the giant's neck and kissed him.
When the other children saw the giant was no longer wicked, they came running back. Along with them came the spring. “It is your garden now, little children,”said the giant as he took his great axe and knocked down the wall. Ever since then, the giant's garden has been a children's playground.