Heidi by Johanna Spyri (android e book reader txt) 📖
- Author: Johanna Spyri
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that Heidi thought they had not time to tell her which way to go.
Then suddenly at one of the street corners she saw a boy
standing, carrying a hand-organ on his back and a funny-looking
animal on his arm. Heidi ran up to him and said, “Where is the
tower with the gold ball on the top?”
“I don’t know,” was the answer.
“Who can I ask to show me?” she asked again.
“I don’t know.”
“Do you know any other church with a high tower?”
“Yes, I know one.”
“Come then and show it me.”
“Show me first what you will give me for it,” and the boy held
out his hand as he spoke. Heidi searched about in her pockets
and presently drew out a card on which was painted a garland of
beautiful red roses; she looked at it first for a moment or two,
for she felt rather sorry to part with it; Clara had only that
morning made her a present of it—but then, to look down into
the valley and see all the lovely green slopes! “There,” said
Heidi, holding out the card, “would you like to have that?”
The boy drew back his hand and shook his head.
“What would you like then?” asked Heidi, not sorry to put the
card back in her pocket.
“Money.”
“I have none, but Clara has; I am sure she will give me some;
how much do you want?”
“Twopence.”
“Come along then.”
They started off together along the street, and on the way Heidi
asked her companion what he was carrying on his back; it was a
hand-organ, he told her, which played beautiful music when he
turned the handle. All at once they found themselves in front of
an old church with a high tower; the boy stood still, and said,
“There it is.”
“But how shall I get inside?” asked Heidi, looking at the fast
closed doors.
“I don’t know,” was the answer.
“Do you think that I can ring as they do for Sebastian?”
“I don’t know.”
Heidi had by this time caught sight of a bell in the wall which
she now pulled with all her might. “If I go up you must stay
down here, for I do not know the way back, and you will have to
show me.”
“What will you give me then for that?”
“What do you want me to give you?”
“Another twopence.”
They heard the key turning inside, and then some one pulled open
the heavy creaking door; an old man came out and at first looked
with surprise and then in anger at the children, as he began
scolding them: “What do you mean by ringing me down like this?
Can’t you read what is written over the bell, ‘For those who
wish to go up the tower’?”
The boy said nothing but pointed his finger at Heidi. The latter
answered, “But I do want to go up the tower.”
“What do you want up there?” said the old man. “Has somebody
sent you?”
“No,” replied Heidi, “I only wanted to go up that I might look
down.”
“Get along home with you and don’t try this trick on me again,
or you may not come off so easily a second time,” and with that
he turned and was about to shut the door. But Heidi took hold of
his coat and said beseechingly, “Let me go up, just once.”
He looked around, and his mood changed as he saw her pleading
eyes; he took hold of her hand and said kindly, “Well, if you
really wish it so much, I will take you.”
The boy sat down on the church steps to show that he was content
to wait where he was.
Hand in hand with the old man Heidi went up the many steps of
the tower; they became smaller and smaller as they neared the
top, and at last came one very narrow one, and there they were at
the end of their climb. The old man lifted Heidi up that she
might look out of the open window.
“There, now you can look down,” he said.
Heidi saw beneath her a sea of roofs, towers, and chimney-pots;
she quickly drew back her head and said in a sad, disappointed
voice, “It is not at all what I thought.”
“You see now, a child like you does not understand anything
about a view! Come along down and don’t go ringing at my bell
again!”
He lifted her down and went on before her down the narrow
stairway. To the left of the turn where it grew wider stood the
door of the tower-keeper’s room, and the landing ran out beside
it to the edge of the steep slanting roof. At the far end of
this was a large basket, in front of which sat a big grey cat,
that snarled as it saw them, for she wished to warn the passers-by that they were not to meddle with her family. Heidi stood
still and looked at her in astonishment, for she had never seen
such a monster cat before; there were whole armies of mice,
however, in the old tower, so the cat had no difficulty in
catching half a dozen for her dinner every day. The old man
seeing Heidi so struck with admiration said, “She will not hurt
you while I am near; come, you can have a peep at the kittens.”
Heidi went up to the basket and broke out into expressions of
delight.
“Oh, the sweet little things! the darling kittens,” she kept on
saying, as she jumped from side to side of the basket so as, not
to lose any of the droll gambols of the seven or eight little
kittens that were scrambling and rolling and falling over one
another.
“Would you like to have one?” said the old man, who enjoyed
watching the child’s pleasure.
“For myself to keep?” said Heidi excitedly, who could hardly
believe such happiness was to be hers.
“Yes, of course, more than one if you like—in short, you can
take away the whole lot if you have room for them,” for the old
man was only too glad to think he could get rid of his kittens
without more trouble.
Heidi could hardly contain herself for joy. There would be
plenty of room for them in the large house, and then how
astonished and delighted Clara would be when she saw the sweet
little kittens.
“But how can I take them with me?” asked Heidi, and was going
quickly to see how many she could carry away in her hands, when
the old cat sprang at her so fiercely that she shrank back in
fear.
“I will take them for you if you will tell me where,” said the
old man, stroking the cat to quiet her, for she was an old
friend of his that had lived with him in the tower for many
years.
“To Herr Sesemann’s, the big house where there is a gold dog’s
head on the door, with a ring in its mouth,” explained Heidi.
Such full directions as these were not really needed by the old
man, who had had charge of the tower for many a long year and
knew every house far and near, and moreover Sebastian was an
acquaintance of his.
“I know the house,” he said, “but when shall I bring them, and
who shall I ask for?—you are not one of the family, I am sure.”
“No, but Clara will be so delighted when I take her the
kittens.”
The old man wished now to go downstairs, but Heidi did not know
how to tear herself away from the amusing spectacle.
“If I could just take one or two away with me! one for myself
and one for Clara, may I?”
“Well, wait a moment,” said the man, and he drew the cat
cautiously away into his room, and leaving her by a bowl of food
came out again and shut the door. “Now take two of them.”
Heidi’s eyes shone with delight. She picked up a white kitten
and another striped white and yellow, and put one in the right,
the other in the left pocket. Then she went downstairs. The boy
was still sitting outside on the steps, and as the old man shut
the door of the church behind them, she said, “Which is our way
to Herr Sesemann’s house?”
“I don’t know,” was the answer.
Heidi began a description of the front door and the steps and
the windows, but the boy only shook his head, and was not any the
wiser.
“Well, look here,” continued Heidi, “from one window you can see
a very, very large grey house, and the roof runs like this—”
and Heidi drew a zigzag line in the air with her forefinger.
With this the boy jumped up, he was evidently in the habit of
guiding himself by similar landmarks. He ran straight off with
Heidi after him, and in a very short time they had reached the
door with the large dog’s head for the knocker. Heidi rang the
bell. Sebastian opened it quickly, and when he saw it was Heidi,
“Make haste! make haste,” he cried in a hurried voice.
Heidi sprang hastily in and Sebastian shut the door after her,
leaving the boy, whom he had not noticed, standing in wonder on
the steps.
“Make haste, little miss,” said Sebastian again; “go straight
into the dining-room, they are already at table; Fraulein
Rottenmeier looks like a loaded cannon. What could make the
little miss run off like that?”
Heidi walked into the room. The lady housekeeper did not look
up, Clara did not speak; there was an uncomfortable silence.
Sebastian pushed her chair up for her, and when she was seated
Fraulein Rottenmeier, with a severe countenance, sternly and
solemnly addressed her: “I will speak with you afterwards,
Adelheid, only this much will I now say, that you behaved in a
most unmannerly and reprehensible way by running out of the
house as you did, without asking permission, without any one
knowing a word about it; and then to go wandering about till this
hour; I never heard of such behavior before.”
“Miau!” came the answer back.
This was too much for the lady’s temper; with raised voice she
exclaimed, “You dare, Adelheid, after your bad behavior, to
answer me as if it were a joke?”
“I did not—” began Heidi—“Miau! miau!”
Sebastian almost dropped his dish and rushed out of the room.
“That will do,” Fraulein Rottenmeier tried to say, but her voice
was almost stifled with anger. “Get up and leave the room.”
Heidi stood up frightened, and again made an attempt to explain.
“I really did not—” “Miau! miau! miau!”
“But, Heidi,” now put in Clara, “when you see that it makes
Fraulein Rottenmeier angry, why do you keep on saying miau?”
“It isn’t I, it’s the kittens,” Heidi was at last given time to
say.
“How! what! kittens!” shrieked Fraulein Rottenmeier. “Sebastian!
Tinette! Find the horrid little things! take them away!” And she
rose and fled into the study and locked the door, so as to make
sure that she was safe from the kittens, which to her were the
most horrible things in creation.
Sebastian was obliged to wait a few minutes outside the door to
get over his laughter before he went into the room again. He
had, while serving Heidi, caught sight
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