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The Project Gutenberg EBook of Heidi, by Johanna Spyri

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net


Title: Heidi
       (Gift Edition)

Author: Johanna Spyri

Commentator: Charles Wharton Stork

Illustrator: Maria Kirk

Translator: Elisabeth Stork

Release Date: March 9, 2007 [EBook #20781]

Language: English


*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HEIDI ***




Produced by Jason Isbell, Emma Morgan Isbell, Jeannie Howse
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
http://www.pgdp.net. This file is gratefully uploaded to
the PG collection in honor of Distributed Proofreaders
having posted over 10,000 ebooks.








Transcriber's Note:


In the original gift edition, there are 8 margin images repeated on each page, these have been preserved and reproduced at the beginning of each chapter.

Inconsistent hyphenation in the original document has been preserved.

Obvious typographical errors have been corrected in this text.
For a complete list, please see the end of this document.






Fly Cover, Heidi
Fly Cover, Peter


HEIDI GIFT EDITION

WAVING HER HAND

WAVING HER HAND AND LOOKING AFTER HER DEPARTING FRIEND TILL HE SEEMED NO BIGGER THAN A LITTLE DOTToList

Page 228



HEIDI
BY JOHANNA SPYRI
TRANSLATED BY ELISABETH P. STORK
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY CHARLES WHARTON STORK, A.M., Ph.D.
14 ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOR BY MARIA L. KIRK
GIFT EDITION
deco
PHILADELPHIA AND LONDON
J.B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
1919




COPYRIGHT, 1915. BY J.B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
ADDITIONAL ILLUSTRATIONS AND DECORATIONS
COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY J.B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY


PRINTED BY J.B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
AT THE WASHINGTON SQUARE PRESS
PHILADELPHIA, U.S.A.




INTRODUCTION

Unassuming in plot and style, "Heidi" may none the less lay claim to rank as a world classic. In the first place, both background and characters ring true. The air of the Alps is wafted to us in every page; the house among the pines, the meadows, and the eagle poised above the naked rocks form a picture that no one could willingly forget. And the people, from the kindly towns-folk to the quaint and touching peasant types, are as real as any representation of human nature need be. Every goat even, has its personality. As for the little heroine, she is a blessing not only to everyone in the story, but to everyone who reads it. The narrative merits of the book are too apparent to call for comment.

As to the author, Johanna Spyri, she has so entirely lost herself in her creation that we may pass over her career rather rapidly. She was born in Switzerland in 1829, came of a literary family, and devoted all her talent to the writing of books for and about children.

Since "Heidi" has been so often translated into English it may well be asked why there is any need for a new version. The answer lies partly in the conventional character of the previous translations. Now, if there is any quality in "Heidi" that gives it a particular charm, that quality is freshness, absolute spontaneity. To be sure, the story is so attractive that it could never be wholly spoiled; but has not the reader the right to enjoy it in English at least very nearly as much as he could in German? The two languages are so different in nature that anything like a literal rendering of one into the other is sure to result in awkwardness and indirectness. Such a book must be not translated, but re-lived and re-created.

To perform such a feat the writer must, to begin with, be familiar with the mountains, and able to appreciate with Wordsworth

The silence that is in the starry sky,
[7] The sleep that is among the lonely hills.

The translator of the present version was born and reared in a region closely similar to that of the story. Her home was originally in the picturesque town of Salzburg, and her father, Franz von Pausinger, was one of the greatest landscape painters of his country and generation. Another equally important requisite is knowledge of children. It happens that this translator has a daughter just the age of the heroine, who moreover loves to dress in Tyrolese costume. To translate "Heidi" was for her therefore a labor of love, which means that the love contended with and overcame the labor.

The English style of the present version is, then, distinctive. It has often been noticed that those who acquire a foreign language often learn to speak it with unusual clearness and purity. For illustration we need go no further than Joseph Conrad, a Pole, probably the greatest master of narrative English writing to-day; or to our own fellow-citizen Carl Schurz. In the present case, the writer has lived seven years in America and has strengthened an excellent training with a wide reading of the best English classics.

Many people say that they read without noticing the author's style. This is seldom quite true; unconsciously every one is impressed in some way or other by the style of every book, or by its lack of style. Children are particularly sensitive in this respect and should, therefore, as much as is practicable, read only the best. In the new translation of "Heidi" here offered to the public I believe that most readers will notice an especial flavor, that very quality of delight in mountain scenes, in mountain people and in child life generally, which is one of the chief merits of the German original. The phrasing has also been carefully adapted to the purpose of reading aloud—a thing that few translators think of. In conclusion, the author, realising the difference between the two languages, has endeavored to write the story afresh, as Johanna Spyri would have written it had English been her native tongue. How successful the attempt has been the reader will judge.

Charles Wharton Stork
Assistant Professor of English at the
University of Pennsylvania






CONTENTS
PART I HEIDI'S YEARS OF LEARNING AND TRAVEL CHAPTER   PAGE I Going up to the Alm-Uncle 17 II. With the Grandfather 38 III. On the Pasture 50 IV. In the Grandmother's Hut 67 V. Two Visitors 83 VI. A New Chapter with New Things 95 VII. Miss Rottenmeier Has an Uncomfortable Day 104 VIII. Great Disturbances in the Sesemann House 119 IX. The Master of the House Hears of Strange Doings 129 X. A Grandmama 136 XI. Heidi Gains in Some Respects and Loses in Others 146 XII. The Sesemann House is Haunted 153 XIII. Up the Alp on a Summer Evening 165 XIV. On Sunday When the Church Bells Ring 183 PART II HEIDI MAKES USE OF HER EXPERIENCE XV. Preparations for a Journey 199 XVI. A Guest on the Alp 207 XVII. Retaliation 219 XVIII. Winter in the Village 229 XIX. Winter Still Continues 243 XX. News from Distant Friends 252 XXI. On Further Events on the Alp 268 XXII. Something Unexpected Happens 276 XXIII. Parting to Meet Again 293




ILLUSTRATIONS
  PAGE Waving Her Hand and Looking After Her Departing Friend till He Looked No Bigger than a Little Dot Frontispiece She Undid the Heavy Shawl and the Two Little Dresses 30 Here a Neat Little Bed Was Prepared 41 She Handed Him Also the Whole Slice of Cheese 57 Off they Started at Such a Pace that Heidi Shouted for Joy 71 When Heidi Heard that She Struggled to Get Free 92 Off they Started, and Soon Heidi Was Pulling the Door-Bell 116 There She Would Remain, Eating Her Heart Away with Longing 152 Throwing Herself in Her Grandfather's Arms, She Held Him Tight 179 With Heidi's Hand in His They Wandered Down Together 192 They Are Coming, Oh, the Doctor is Coming First 211 The Two Children Were Already Flying Down the Alp 241 He Watched His Fallen Enemy Tumbling Downwards, Downwards 277 Peter Shot Off and Rushed Down the Mountain-side, Turning Wild Somersaults on His Perilous Way 298









Part I Heidi's Years of Learning and Travel






HEIDI IToC GOING UP TO THE ALM-UNCLE


The little old town of Mayenfeld is charmingly situated. From it a footpath leads through green, well-wooded stretches to the foot of the heights which look down imposingly upon the valley. Where the footpath begins to go steeply and abruptly up the Alps, the heath, with its short grass and pungent herbage, at once sends out its soft perfume to meet the wayfarer.

One bright sunny morning in June, a tall, vigorous maiden of the mountain region climbed up the narrow path, leading a little girl by the hand. The youngster's cheeks were in such a glow that it showed even through her sun-browned skin. Small wonder though! for in spite of the heat, the little one, who was scarcely five years old, was bundled up as if she had to brave a bitter frost. Her shape was difficult to distinguish, for she wore two dresses, if not three, and around her shoulders a large red cotton shawl. With her feet encased in heavy hob-nailed boots, this hot and shapeless little person toiled up the mountain.

The pair had been climbing for about an hour when they reached a hamlet half-way up the great mountain named the Alm. This hamlet was called "Im Dörfli" or "The Little Village." It was the elder girl's home town, and therefore she was greeted from nearly every house; people called to her from windows and doors, and very often from the road. But, answering questions and calls as she went by, the girl did not loiter on her way and only stood still when she reached the end of the hamlet. There a few cottages lay scattered about, from the furthest of which a voice called out to her through an open door: "Deta, please wait one moment! I am coming with you, if you are going further up."

When the girl stood still to wait, the child instantly let go her hand and promptly sat down on the ground.

"Are you tired, Heidi?" Deta asked the child.

"No, but hot," she replied.

"We shall be up in an hour, if you take big steps and climb with all your little might!" Thus the elder girl tried to encourage her small companion.

A stout, pleasant-looking woman stepped out of the house and joined the two. The child had risen and wandered behind the old acquaintances, who immediately started gossiping about their friends in the neighborhood and the people of the hamlet generally.

"Where are you taking the child, Deta?" asked the newcomer. "Is she the child your sister left?"

"Yes," Deta assured her; "I am taking her up to the Alm-Uncle and there I want her to remain."

"You can't really mean to take her there Deta. You must have lost your senses, to

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