Heidi, Johanna Spyri [reading e books .TXT] 📗

people, but they all seemed in such a hurry

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