Lost in the middle of a giant’s vegetable garden are thirteen dolls with laughing faces. It was the giant’s daughter who once placed them along the turnip walk, seated on tiny benches, as if waiting for a parade that was about to pass by. Then she forgot about them, and there they stayed, abandoned, in the sun, the wind and the rain, laughing and tumbling down the steps.

The giant’s daughter is not yet old enough to go to school. When she wakes up, she has breakfast and then amuses herself by scattering her toys around the great garden of her house. Excitedly, she picks up each one and carefully positions them along the flower beds, at the far end of the lawns and in the middle of the clearings: a doll with no clothes on, smiling bashfully, sitting on top of a lego brick; her brother’s little tin soldier, with his round helmet and his rifle; a man with a piece of paper in his hand, mounted on a horse balanced on three legs; four winged lions inside a bowl of water; a gentleman in a cassock wearing large glasses; a warrior on whose head she placed a lizard, laughing out loud!

But the toy the giant’s daughter loves most is the beautiful stone tower she stole from her Father’s Italian chess set. She placed it beside the triangular flower bed where the aromatic herbs grow, in the highest spot in the garden. She spends hours lying on the grass gazing at it. She studies very closely each medallion, each statue, each window, each pinnacle, each shell, each garland, each pilaster, each balustrade. And she has tremendous fun watching the little ants that climb up and down it, from morning till night, always busy.

On the day the giant’s daughter turned five, her Father gave her a surprise. That day, she woke up to a joyful sound that seemed to come from tiny bells ringing. When she went outside to investigate, she discovered that the tower she adored was now a little music box, playing a beautiful melody her Father had composed especially for her.

The giant’s daughter loved her gift so much that every day she winds up the music box. And ever since, at midday and in the late afternoon, the bells of the beautiful chess tower can be heard ringing all around.