26.巨人的花园

Lesson Twenty-six

The Selfish Giant

1.Every afternoon, as the children were coming back from school, they used to go and play in the giant’s garden.

2.It was a beautiful large garden.

3.The garden was covered with tender grass and beautiful flowers like stars grew in the grass.

4.There were twelve peach trees.In the spring the fruit trees were covered with red and white flowers, and later in the year they bore rich fruit.

5.The birds sang in the trees so sweetly that sometimes the children stopped their games and listened to them.

6.“How happy we are here!” they cried to each other.

7.One day the giant came back.

8.He went away to see his friends and stayed there for seven years.

9.When he arrived, he saw the children playing in his garden.

10.“What are you doing here?” he cried in a very loud voice.

11.The children ran away.

12.“My own garden is my own garden,” said the giant.“I will allow no one to play in it but myself.”

13.So he built a high wall round it and put up a notice: Keep out.

14.So the children had nowhere to play.They wandered round the high walls when their lessons were finished and talked about the beautiful garden inside.

15.“How happy we were there!” they said to each other.

16.The spring came, and there were flowers and little birds all over the country.

17.But in the garden of the Selfish Giant it was till winter

18.The birds did not like to sing in it because there were no children, and the trees forgot to bear flowers.Once in a while a pretty flower poked its head out of the grass, but as soon as it saw the notice-board, it sank back into the field and went to sleep.

19.Only snow and frost were happy.

20.“Spring has forgotten this garden,” they cried, “and we shall live here all the year round!”

21.Snow covered up the grass, and ice covered all the trees with silver.

22.The north wind came, and driving rain.

23.The north wind, fur-coated, whistled in the garden all day.

24.He said, “This is a good place.We must have the hail to have fun.” So the hail came also.

25.He would spend three hours on the roof every day, and then run around the garden.

26.“I can’t understand why the spring is so late in coming,” said the Selfish Giant as he sat at the window of his house and looked out at his cold white garden.“I hope that there will be a change in the weather.”

27.But the spring never came, nor the summer.

28.When there was golden fruit in every other garden, there was no fruit in the giant’s garden.

29.The giant was lying in bed one morning when he heard some beautiful music.

30.He thought it was the king’s band that passed through the door.In fact, it was a little waxbill singing outside his window.

31.It was so long since he had heard the song of a bird that it seemed to him the most beautiful music in the world.

32.At this time, the hail stopped, and the north wind no longer roared.A ray of sunshine came in from the window.

33.“I believe that spring has come at last!” said the giant.He jumped out of bed and looked out.

34.He saw a most wonderful sight.

35.The children had come in through a hole in the wall and were sitting in the branches of the trees.

36.The trees were so glad to have the children back that they had covered themselves with flowers, gently dancing their arms over their heads.

37.The birds were flying about and singing with joy.

38.And flowers were looking up through the green grass.

39.It’s a lovely sight indeed.

40.There is only one corner in winter.

41.A little boy was standing in the farthest corner of the garden.

42.He was so small that he could not reach up to the branches of the tree, but was wandering round it and weeping.

43.That tree was still covered with ice and snow.And the north wind is still howling at its top.

44.“Climb up, boy!” The peach tree said to the little boy, dropping its branches as low as it could, but the boy was still too small.

45.The giant is soft-hearted at the sight.

46.“How selfish I have been!” said the giant, “now I know why the spring would not come here.”

47.He was really sorry for what he had done.

48.So he went down: he opened the door very quietly, and went out into the garden.

49.But, when the children saw him, they were afraid and ran away.The scene of winter appeared again in the garden.

50.Only the little boy did not run: his eyes were so full of tears that he did not see the giant coming.

51.The giant came quietly behind him.He took the little boy gently in his hand and put him up into the tree.

52.Then the tree was suddenly covered with flowers, and the birds came and sang in it,

53.and the little boy put his arms round the giant’s neck and kissed him.

54.The other children saw that giant was not bad and selfish now, so they came running back.

55.Spring comes back with them.

56.“It’s your garden now, little children,” said the giant.

57.He took out a big axe and pulled down the wall.

58.Since then, the giant’s garden has become a paradise for children.

59.The children stood at the feet of the giant, climbed onto the giant’s shoulders and played to their hearts’ content.

60.Years went by, and the giant became very old and weak.He could not play in the garden now; so he sat in a big chair and watched the children at their games and looked at his beautiful garden.

61.“I have many beautiful flowers,” he said, “but the children are the most beautiful flowers of all.”