Heidi
from the path in a hollow that afforded it some protection from the
mountain wind.
Here lived Peter, the eleven-year-old boy, with his mother Brigitta and
his blind grandmother who was known to all the old and young in the
neighborhood as just "Grandmother."
Every morning Peter went down to Doerfli to bring up a flock of goats
to browse on the mountain. At sundown he went skipping down the
mountain again with his light-footed animals. When he reached Doerfli
he would give a shrill whistle, whereupon all the owners of the goats
would come out to take home the animals that belonged to them.
Dete had been standing for a good ten minutes looking about her in
every direction for some sign of the children and the goats. Meanwhile
Heidi and the goatherd were climbing up by a far and roundabout way,
for Peter knew many spots where all kinds of good food, in the shape
of shrubs and plants, grew for his goats. The child, exhausted with
the heat and weight of her thick clothes, panted and struggled after
him, at first with some difficulty. She said nothing, but her little
eyes kept watching first Peter, as he sprang nimbly hither and thither
on his bare feet, clad only in his short, light breeches, and then
the slim-legged goats that went leaping over rocks and shrubs. All at
once she sat down on the ground, and began pulling off her shoes and
stockings. Then she unwound the hot red shawl and took off her frock.
But there was still another to unfasten, for Dete had put the Sunday
dress on over the everyday one, to save the trouble of carrying it.
Quick as lightning the everyday frock followed the other, and now the
child stood up, clad only in her light short-sleeved under garment. She
stretched out her little bare arms with glee. Leaving all her clothes
together in a tidy little heap, she went jumping and climbing up after
Peter and the goats as nimbly as any of the party.
Now that Heidi was able to move at her ease, she began to enter into
conversation with Peter. She asked him how many goats he had, where he
was going to with them, and what he had to do when he arrived there.
At last, after some time, they came within view of Dete. Hardly had
the latter caught sight of the little company climbing up towards her
when she shrieked out: "Heidi, what have you been doing! What a sight
you have made of yourself! And where are your two frocks and the red
wrapper? And the new shoes I bought, and the new stockings I knitted
for you--everything gone! not a thing left! What can you have been
thinking of, Heidi; where are all your clothes?"
The child quietly pointed to a spot below on the mountain side and
answered, "Down there."
"You good-for-nothing little thing!" exclaimed Dete angrily, "what
could have put it into your head to do that? What made you undress
yourself? What do you mean by it?"
"I don't want any clothes," said Heidi.
"You wretched, thoughtless child! have you no sense in you at all?"
continued Dete, scolding and lamenting. "Peter, you go down and fetch
them for me as quickly as you can, and you shall have something nice,"
and she held out a bright new piece of money to him that sparkled in
the sun. Peter was immediately off down the steep mountain side, taking
the shortest cut, and was back again so quickly with the clothes that
even Dete was obliged to give him a word of praise as she handed him
the promised money. Peter promptly thrust it into his pocket and his
face beamed with delight, for it was not often that he was the happy
possessor of such riches.
"You can carry the things up for me as far as Uncle's, as you are going
the same way," went on Dete, who was preparing to continue her climb
up the mountain side, which rose in a steep ascent immediately behind
the goatherd's hut. Peter willingly undertook to do this, and followed
after her. After a climb of more than three-quarters of an hour they
reached the top of the Alm mountain. Uncle's hut stood on a projection
of the rock, exposed indeed to the winds, but where every ray of sun
could rest upon it, and a full view could be had of the valley beneath.
Behind the hut stood three old fir trees, with long, thick, unlopped
branches. Beyond these rose a further wall of mountain, the lower
heights still overgrown with beautiful grass and plants.
Against the hut, on the side looking towards the valley, Uncle had put
up a seat. Here he was sitting, his pipe in his mouth and his hands
on his knees, quietly looking out, when the children, the goats, and
Dete suddenly clambered into view. Heidi was at the top first. She went
straight up to the old man, put out her hand, and said, "Good-evening,
Grandfather."
"So, so, what is the meaning of this?" he asked gruffly, as he gave
the child an abrupt shake of the hand, and gazed at her from under
his bushy eyebrows. Heidi stared steadily back at him in return with
unflinching gaze. Meanwhile Dete had come up, with Peter after her.
"I wish you good-day, Uncle," said Dete, as she walked towards him,
"and I have brought you Tobias and Adelaide's child. You will hardly
recognize her, as you have never seen her since she was a year old."
"And what has the child to do with me up here?" asked the old man
curtly. "You there," he then called out to Peter, "be off with your
goats, you are none too early as it is, and take mine with you."
Peter obeyed on the instant and quickly disappeared.
"The child is here to remain with you," Dete made answer. "I have done
my duty by her for these four years, and now it is time for you to do
yours."
"That's it, is it?" said the old man, as he looked at her with a flash
in his eye. "And when the child begins to fret and whine after you,
what am I to do with her then?"
"That's your affair," retorted Dete. "If you cannot arrange to keep
her, do with her as you like. You will be answerable for the result if
harm happens to her, though you have hardly need to add to the burden
already on your conscience."
Now Dete was not quite easy in her own conscience about what she was
doing, and consequently was feeling hot and irritable, and said more
than she had intended. As she uttered her last words, Uncle rose from
his seat. He looked at her in a way that made her draw back a step or
two, then flinging out his arm, he said to her in a commanding voice:
"Be off with you this instant, and get back as quickly as you can to
the place whence you came, and do not let me see your face again in a
hurry."
Dete did not wait to be told twice. "Good-bye to you then, and to you
too, Heidi," she called, as she turned quickly away and started to
descend the mountain at a running pace, which she did not slacken till
she found herself safely again at Doerfli.
CHAPTER II
A NEW HOME WITH GRANDFATHER
As soon as Dete had disappeared the old man went back to his bench,
and there he remained seated, staring at the ground without uttering a
sound, while thick curls of smoke floated upward from his pipe. Heidi,
meanwhile, was enjoying herself in her new surroundings; she looked
about till she found a shed, built against the hut, where the goats
were kept; she peeped in, and saw it was empty. She continued her
search but presently came back to where her grandfather was sitting.
Seeing that he was in exactly the same position as when she left him,
she went and placed herself in front of the old man and said:
"I want to see what you have inside the house."
"Come then!" and the grandfather rose and went before her towards the
hut.
"Bring your bundle of clothes in with you," he bid her as she was
following.
"I shan't want them any more," was her prompt answer.
The old man turned and looked searchingly at the child, whose dark eyes
were sparkling in delighted anticipation of what she was going to see
inside. "She is certainly not wanting in intelligence," he murmured to
himself. "And why shall you not want them any more?" he asked aloud.
"Because I want to go about like the goats with their thin light legs."
"Well, you can do so if you like," said her grandfather, "but bring the
things in, we must put them in the cupboard."
Heidi did as she was told. The old man now opened the door and Heidi
stepped inside after him; she found herself in a good-sized room,
which covered the whole ground floor of the hut. A table and a chair
were the only furniture; in one corner stood the grandfather's bed, in
another was the hearth with a large kettle hanging above it; and on the
further side was a large door in the wall--this was the cupboard. The
grandfather opened it; inside were his clothes. On a second shelf were
some plates and cups and glasses, and on a higher one still, a round
loaf, smoked meat, and cheese, for everything that Alm-Uncle needed
for his food and clothing was kept in this cupboard. Heidi thrust in
her bundle of clothes, as far back behind her grandfather's things as
possible, so that they might not easily be found again. She then looked
carefully round the room, and asked, "Where am I to sleep, Grandfather?"
"Wherever you like," he answered.
Heidi was delighted, and began at once to examine all the nooks and
corners to find out where it would be pleasantest to sleep. In the
corner near her grandfather's bed she saw a short ladder against the
wall; up she climbed and found herself in the hay-loft. There lay a
large heap of fresh, sweet-smelling hay, while through a round window
in the wall she could see right down the valley.
"I shall sleep up here, Grandfather," she called down to him, "it's
lovely, up here. Come up and see how lovely it is!"
"Oh, I know all about it," he called up in answer.
"I am getting the bed ready now," she called down again, as she went
busily to and fro at her work, "but I shall want you to bring me up a
sheet; you can't have a bed without a sheet; you want it to lie upon."
"All right," said the grandfather, and presently he went to the
cupboard, and after rummaging about inside for a few minutes he drew
out a long, coarse piece of stuff, which was all he had to do duty for
a sheet. He carried it up to the loft, where he found Heidi had already
made quite a nice bed. She had put an extra heap of hay at one end for
a pillow, and had so arranged it that, when in bed, she would be able
to see comfortably out through the round window.
"That is capital," said her grandfather; "now we must put on the sheet."
They spread it over the bed, and where it was too long or too broad,
Heidi quickly tucked it in under the hay. It looked as tidy and
comfortable a bed as you could wish for, and Heidi stood gazing
thoughtfully at her handiwork.
"We have forgotten something now, Grandfather," she said after a short
silence.
"What's that?" he asked.
"A coverlid; when you get into bed, you have to creep in between the
sheet and the coverlid."
"Oh, that's the way, is it? But suppose I have not got a coverlid?"
said the old man.
"Well, never mind, Grandfather," said Heidi in a consoling tone of
voice, "I can take some more hay to put over me," and she was turning
quickly to fetch another armful from the heap, when her grandfather
stopped her. "Wait a moment," he said, and he climbed down the ladder
again and went towards his bed. He returned to the loft with a large,
thick sack, made of flax, which he laid tidily over the bed.
"That is a splendid coverlid," said Heidi, "and the bed looks lovely
altogether! I wish it was night, so that I might get inside it at once."
"I think we had better go down and have something to eat first," said
the grandfather.
While the kettle was boiling the old man held a large piece of cheese
on a long iron fork over the fire, turning it round and round till it
was toasted a nice golden yellow color on each side. Heidi watched all