Heidi by Johanna Spyri (android e book reader txt) đź“–
- Author: Johanna Spyri
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hardly get along. A little creature like you would soon be
smothered by it, and we should not be able to find you again.
Wait a bit till it freezes, then you will be able to walk over
the hard snow.”
Heidi did not like the thought of having to wait, but the days
were so busy that she hardly knew how they went by.
Heidi now went to school in Dorfli every morning and afternoon,
and eagerly set to work to learn all that was taught her. She
hardly ever saw Peter there, for as a rule he was absent. The
teacher was an easy-going man who merely remarked now and then,
“Peter is not turning up to-day again, it seems, but there is a
lot of snow up on the mountain and I daresay he cannot get
along.” Peter, however, always seemed able to make his way
through the snow in the evening when school was over, and he
then generally paid Heidi a visit.
At last, after some days, the sun again appeared and shone
brightly over the white ground, but he went to bed again behind
the mountains at a very early hour, as if he did not find such
pleasure in looking down on the earth as when everything was
green and flowery. But then the moon came out clear and large
and lit up the great white snowfield all through the night, and
the next morning the whole mountain glistened and sparkled like a
huge crystal. When Peter got out of his window as usual, he was
taken by surprise, for instead of sinking into the soft snow he
fell on the hard ground and went sliding some way down the
mountain side like a sleigh before he could stop himself. He
picked himself up and tested the hardness of the ground by
stamping on it and trying with all his might to dig his heels
into it, but even then he could not break off a single little
splinter of ice; the Alm was frozen hard as iron. This was just
what Peter had been hoping for, as he knew now that Heidi would
be able to come up to them. He quickly got back into the house,
swallowed the milk which his mother had put ready for him,
thrust a piece of bread in his pocket, and said, “I must be off
to school.” “That’s right, go and learn all you can,” said the
grandmother encouragingly. Peter crept through the window again—
the door was quite blocked by the frozen snow outside—pulling
his little sleigh after him, and in another minute was shooting
down the mountain.
He went like lightning, and when he reached Dorfli, which stood
on the direct road to Mayenfeld, he made up his mind to go on
further, for he was sure he could not stop his rapid descent
without hurting himself and the sleigh too. So down he still
went till he reached the level ground, where the sleigh came to a
pause of its own accord. Then he got out and looked round. The
impetus with which he had made his journey down had carried him
some little way beyond Mayenfeld. He bethought himself that it
was too late to get to school now, as lessons would already have
begun, and it would take him a good hour to walk back to Dorfli.
So he might take his time about returning, which he did, and
reached Dorfli just as Heidi had got home from school and was
sitting at dinner with her grandfather. Peter walked in, and as
on this occasion he had something particular to communicate, he
began without a pause, exclaiming as he stood still in the
middle of the room, “She’s got it now.”
“Got it? what?” asked the Uncle. “Your words sound quite
warlike, general.”
“The frost,” explained Peter.
“Oh! then now I can go and see grandmother!” said Heidi
joyfully, for she had understood Peter’s words at once. “But why
were you not at school then? You could have come down in the
sleigh,” she added reproachfully, for it did not agree with
Heidi’s ideas of good behavior to stay away when it was possible
to be there.
“It carried me on too far and I was too late,” Peter replied.
“I call that being a deserter,” said the Uncle, “and deserters
get their ears pulled, as you know.”
Peter gave a tug to his cap in alarm, for there was no one of
whom he stood in so much awe as Alm-Uncle.
“And an army leader like yourself ought to be doubly ashamed of
running away,” continued Alm-Uncle. “What would you think of
your goats if one went off this way and another that, and refused
to follow and do what was good for them? What would you do then?”
“I should beat them,” said Peter promptly.
“And if a boy behaved like these unruly goats, and he got a
beating for it, what would you say then?”
“Serve him right,” was the answer.
“Good, then understand this: next time you let your sleigh carry
you past the school when you ought to be inside at your lessons,
come on to me afterwards and receive what you deserve.”
Peter now understood the drift of the old man’s questions and
that he was the boy who behaved like the unruly goats, and he
looked somewhat fearfully towards the corner to see if anything
happened to be there such as he used himself on such occasions
for the punishment of his animals.
But now the grandfather suddenly said in a cheerful voice, “Come
and sit down and have something, and afterwards Heidi shall go
with you. Bring her back this evening and you will find supper
waiting for you here.”
This unexpected turn of conversation set Peter grinning all over
with delight. He obeyed without hesitation and took his seat
beside Heidi. But the child could not eat any more in her
excitement at the thought of going to see grandmother. She
pushed the potatoes and toasted cheese which still stood on her
plate towards him while Uncle was filling his plate from the
other side, so that he had quite a pile of food in front of him,
but he attacked it without any lack of courage. Heidi ran to the
cupboard and brought out the warm cloak Clara had sent her; with
this on and the hood drawn over her head, she was all ready for
her journey. She stood waiting beside Peter, and as soon as his
last mouthful had disappeared she said, “Come along now.” As the
two walked together Heidi had much to tell Peter of her two
goats that had been so unhappy the first day in their new stall
that they would not eat anything, but stood hanging their heads,
not even rousing themselves to bleat. And when she asked her
grandfather the reason of this, he told her it was with them as
with her in Frankfurt, for it was the first time in their lives
they had come down from the mountain. “And you don’t know what
that is, Peter, unless you have felt it yourself,” added Heidi.
The children had nearly reached their destination before Peter
opened his mouth; he appeared to be so sunk in thought that he
hardly heard what was said to him. As they neared home, however,
he stood still and said in a somewhat sullen voice, “I had
rather go to school even than get what Uncle threatened.”
Heidi was of the same mind, and encouraged him in his good
intention. They found Brigitta sitting alone knitting, for the
grandmother was not very well and had to stay the day in bed on
account of the cold. Heidi had never before missed the old
figure in her place in the corner, and she ran quickly into the
next room. There lay grandmother on her little poorly covered
bed, wrapped up in her warm grey shawl.
“Thank God,” she exclaimed as Heidi came running in; the poor
old woman had had a secret fear at heart all through the autumn,
especially if Heidi was absent for any length of time, for Peter
had told her of a strange gentleman who had come from Frankfurt,
and who had gone out with them and always talked to Heidi, and
she had felt sure he had come to take her away again. Even when
she heard he had gone off alone, she still had an idea that a
messenger would be sent over from Frankfurt to fetch the child.
Heidi went up to the side of the bed and said, “Are you very
ill, grandmother?”
“No, no, child,” answered the old woman reassuringly, passing
her hand lovingly over the child’s head, “It’s only the frost
that has got into my bones a bit.”
“Shall you be quite well then directly it turns warm again?”
“Yes, God willing, or even before that, for I want to get back
to my spinning; I thought perhaps I should do a little to-day,
but tomorrow I am sure to be all right again.” The old woman had
detected that Heidi was frightened and was anxious to set her
mind at ease.
Her words comforted Heidi, who had in truth been greatly
distressed, for she had never before seen the grandmother ill in
bed. She now looked at the old woman seriously for a minute or
two, and then said, “In Frankfurt everybody puts on a shawl to
go out walking; did you think it was to be worn in bed,
grandmother?”
“I put it on, dear child, to keep myself from freezing, and I am
so pleased with it, for my bedclothes are not very thick,” she
answered.
“But, grandmother,” continued Heidi, “your bed is not right,
because it goes downhill at your head instead of uphill.”
“I know it, child, I can feel it,” and the grandmother put up
her hand to the thin flat pillow, which was little more than a
board under her head, to make herself more comfortable; “the
pillow was never very thick, and I have lain on it now for so
many years that it has grown quite flat.”
“Oh, if only I had asked Clara to let me take away my Frankfurt
bed,” said Heidi. “I had three large pillows, one above the
other, so that I could hardly sleep, and I used to slip down to
try and find a flat place, and then I had to pull myself up
again, because it was proper to sleep there like that. Could you
sleep like that, grandmother?”
“Oh, yes! the pillows keep one warm, and it is easier to breathe
when the head is high,” answered the grandmother, wearily
raising her head as she spoke as if trying to find a higher
resting-place. “But we will not talk about that, for I have so
much that other old sick people are without for which I thank
God; there is the nice bread I get every day, and this warm
wrap, and your visits, Heidi. Will you read me something to-day?”
Heidi ran into the next room to fetch the hymn book. Then she
picked out the favorite hymns one after another, for she knew
them all by heart now, as pleased as the grandmother to hear
them again after so many days. The grandmother lay with folded
hands, while a smile of peace stole over the worn, troubled face,
like one to whom good news has been brought.
Suddenly Heidi paused. “Grandmother, are you feeling quite well
again already?”
“Yes, child, I have grown better while listening to you; read it
to the end.”
The child read on, and
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