Heidi by Johanna Spyri (android e book reader txt) 📖

pastor had risen and stood holding out his hand to the old

man as he added with renewed earnestness, “I will wager,

neighbor, that next winter you will be down among us again, and

we shall be good neighbors as of old. I should be very grieved

if any pressure had to be put upon you; give me your hand and

promise me that you will come and live with us again and become

reconciled to God and man.”

 

Alm-Uncle gave the pastor his hand and answered him calmly and

firmly, “You mean well by me I know, but as to that which you

wish me to do, I say now what I shall continue to say, that I

will not send the child to school nor come and live among you.”

 

“Then God help you!” said the pastor, and he turned sadly away

and left the hut and went down the mountain.

 

Alm-Uncle was out of humor. When Heidi said as usual that

afternoon, “Can we go down to grandmother now?” he answered,

“Not to-day.” He did not speak again the whole of that day, and

the following morning when Heidi again asked the same question,

he replied, “We will see.” But before the dinner bowls had been

cleared away another visitor arrived, and this time it was

Cousin Dete. She had a fine feathered hat on her head, and a long

trailing skirt to her dress which swept the floor, and on the

floor of a goatherd’s hut there are all sorts of things that do

not belong to a dress.

 

The grandfather looked her up and down without uttering a word.

But Dete was prepared with an exceedingly amiable speech and

began at once to praise the looks of the child. She was looking

so well she should hardly have known her again, and it was

evident that she had been happy and well-cared for with her

grandfather; but she had never lost sight of the idea of taking

the child back again, for she well understood that the little

one must be much in his way, but she had not been able to do it

at first. Day and night, however, she had thought over the means

of placing the child somewhere, and that was why she had come today, for she had just heard of something that would be a lucky

chance for Heidi beyond her most ambitious hopes. Some immensely

wealthy relatives of the people she was serving, who had the

most splendid house almost in Frankfurt, had an only daughter,

young and an invalid, who was always obliged to go about in a

wheeled chair; she was therefore very much alone and had no one

to share her lessons, and so the little girl felt dull. Her

father had spoken to Dete’s mistress about finding a companion

for her, and her mistress was anxious to help in the matter, as

she felt so sympathetic about it. The lady-housekeeper had

described the sort of child they wanted, simple-minded and

unspoilt, and not like most of the children that one saw now-a-days. Dete had thought at once of Heidi and had gone off without

delay to see the lady-housekeeper, and after Dete had given her a

description of Heidi, she had immediately agreed to take her. And

no one could tell what good fortune there might not be in store

for Heidi, for if she was once with these people and they took a

fancy to her, and anything happened to their own daughter—one

could never tell, the child was so weakly—and they did not feel

they could live without a child, why then the most unheard of

luck—

 

“Have you nearly finished what you had to say?” broke in Alm-Uncle, who had allowed her to talk on uninterruptedly so far.

 

“Ugh!” exclaimed Dete, throwing up her head in disgust, “one

would think I had been talking to you about the most ordinary

matter; why there is not one person in all Prattigau who would

not thank God if I were to bring them such a piece of news as I

am bringing you.”

 

“You may take your news to anybody you like, I will have nothing

to do with it.”

 

But now Dete leaped up from her seat like a rocket and cried,

“If that is all you have to say about it, why then I will give

you a bit of my mind. The child is now eight years old and knows

nothing, and you will not let her learn. You will not send her

to church or school, as I was told down in Dorfli, and she is my

own sister’s child. I am responsible for what happens to her, and

when there is such a good opening for a child, as this which

offers for Heidi, only a person who cares for nobody and never

wishes good to any one would think of not jumping at it. But I

am not going to give in, and that I tell you; I have everybody in

Dorfli on my side; there is not one person there who will not

take my part against you; and I advise you to think well before

bringing it into court, if that is your intention; there are

certain things which might be brought up against you which you

would not care to hear, for when one has to do with law-courts

there is a great deal raked up that had been forgotten.”

 

“Be silent!” thundered the Uncle, and his eyes flashed with

anger. “Go and be done with you! and never let me see you again

with your hat and feather, and such words on your tongue as you

come with today!” And with that he strode out of the hut.

 

“You have made grandfather angry,” said Heidi, and her dark eyes

had anything but a friendly expression in them as she looked at

Dete.

 

“He will soon be all right again; come now,” said Dete

hurriedly, “and show me where your clothes are.”

 

“I am not coming,” said Heidi.

 

“Nonsense,” continued Dete; then altering her tone to one half-coaxing, half-cross, “Come, come, you do not understand any

better than your grandfather; you will have all sorts of good

things that you never dreamed of.” Then she went to the cupboard

and taking out Heidi’s things rolled them up in a bundle. “Come

along now, there’s your hat; it is very shabby but will do for

the present; put it on and let us make haste off.”

 

“I am not coming,” repeated Heidi.

 

“Don’t be so stupid and obstinate, like a goat; I suppose it’s

from the goats you have learnt to be so. Listen to me: you saw

your grandfather was angry and heard what he said, that he did

not wish to see us ever again; he wants you now to go away with

me and you must not make him angrier still. You can’t think how

nice it is at Frankfurt, and what a lot of things you will see,

and if you do not like it you can come back again; your

grandfather will be in a good temper again by that time.”

 

“Can I return at once and be back home again here this evening?”

asked Heidi.

 

“What are you talking about, come along now! I tell you that you

can come back here when you like. To-day we shall go as far as

Mayenfeld, and early tomorrow we shall start in the train, and

that will bring you home again in no time when you wish it, for

it goes as fast as the wind.”

 

Dete had now got the bundle under her arm and the child by the

hand, and so they went down the mountain together.

 

As it was still too early in the year to take his goats out,

Peter continued to go to school at Dorfli, but now and again he

stole a holiday, for he could see no use in learning to read,

while to wander about a bit and look for stout sticks which

might be wanted some day he thought a far better employment. As

Dete and Heidi neared the grandmother’s hut they met Peter coming

round the corner; he had evidently been well rewarded that day

for his labors, for he was carrying an immense bundle of long

thick hazel sticks on his shoulders. He stood still and stared

at the two approaching figures; as they came up to him, he

exclaimed, “Where are you going, Heidi?”

 

“I am only just going over to Frankfurt for a little visit with

Dete,” she replied; “but I must first run in to grandmother, she

will be expecting me.”

 

“No, no, you must not stop to talk; it is already too late,”

said Dete, holding Heidi, who was struggling to get away, fast by

the hand. “You can go in when you come back, you must come along

now,” and she pulled the child on with her, fearing that if she

let her go in Heidi might take it into her head again that she

did not wish to come, and that the grandmother might stand by

her. Peter ran into the hut and banged against the table with

his bundle of sticks with such violence that everything in the

room shook, and his grandmother leaped up with a cry of alarm

from her spinning-wheel. Peter had felt that he must give vent to

his feelings somehow.

 

“What is the matter? What is the matter?” cried the frightened

old woman, while his mother, who had also started up from her

seat at the shock, said in her usual patient manner, “What is

it, Peter? why do you behave so roughly?”

 

“Because she is taking Heidi away,” explained Peter.

 

“Who? who? where to, Peter, where to?” asked the grandmother,

growing still more agitated; but even as she spoke she guessed

what had happened, for Brigitta had told her shortly before that

she had seen Dete going up to Alm-Uncle. The old woman rose

hastily and with trembling hands opened the window and called

out beseechingly, “Dete, Dete, do not take the child away from

us! do not take her away!”

 

The two who were hastening down the mountain heard her voice,

and Dete evidently caught the words, for she grasped Heidi’s hand

more firmly. Heidi struggled to get free, crying, “Grandmother

is calling, I must go to her.”

 

But Dete had no intention of letting the child go, and quieted

her as best she could; they must make haste now, she said, or

they would be too late and not able to go on the next day to

Frankfurt, and there the child would see how delightful it was,

and Dete was sure would not wish to go back when she was once

there. But if Heidi wanted to return home she could do so at

once, and then she could take something she liked back to

grandmother. This was a new idea to Heidi, and it pleased her so

much that Dete had no longer any difficulty in getting her

along.

 

After a few minutes’ silence, Heidi asked, “What could I take

back to her?”

 

“We must think of something nice,” answered Dete; “a soft roll

of white bread; she would enjoy that, for now she is old she can

hardly eat the hard, black bread.”

 

“No, she always gives it back to Peter, telling him it is too

hard, for I have seen her do it myself,” affirmed Heidi. “Do let

us make haste, for then perhaps we can get back soon from

Frankfurt, and I shall be able to give her the white bread today.” And Heidi started off running so fast that Dete with the

bundle under her arm could scarcely keep up with