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

of a little kitten’s head

peeping out of her pocket, and guessing the scene that would

follow, had been so overcome with amusement at the first miaus

that he had hardly been able to finish handing the dishes. The

lady’s distressed cries for help had ceased before he had

sufficiently regained his composure to go back into the dining-room. It was all peace and quietness there now, Clara had the

kittens on her lap, and Heidi was kneeling beside her, both

laughing and playing with the tiny, graceful little animals.

 

“Sebastian,” exclaimed Clara as he came in, “you must help us;

you must find a bed for the kittens where Fraulein Rottenmeier

will not spy them out, for she is so afraid of them that she

will send them away at once; but we want to keep them, and have

them out whenever we are alone. Where can you put them?”

 

“I will see to that,” answered Sebastian willingly. “I will make

a bed in a basket and put it in some place where the lady is not

likely to go; you leave it to me.” He set about the work at

once, sniggling to himself the while, for he guessed there would

be a further rumpus about this some day, and Sebastian was not

without a certain pleasure in the thought of Fraulein Rottenmeier

being a little disturbed.

 

Not until some time had elapsed, and it was nearing the hour for

going to bed, did Fraulein Rottenmeier venture to open the door

a crack and call through, “Have you taken those dreadful little

animals away, Sebastian?”

 

He assured her twice that he had done so; he had been hanging

about the room in anticipation of this question, and now quickly

and quietly caught up the kittens from Clara’s lap and

disappeared with them.

 

The castigatory sermon which Fraulein Rottenmeier had held in

reserve for Heidi was put off till the following day, as she

felt too exhausted now after all the emotions she had gone

through of irritation, anger, and fright, of which Heidi had

unconsciously been the cause. She retired without speaking, Clara

and Heidi following, happy in their minds at knowing that the

kittens were lying in a comfortable bed.

 

CHAPTER VIII. THERE IS GREAT COMMOTION IN THE LARGE HOUSE

 

Sebastian had just shown the tutor into the study on the

following morning when there came another and very loud ring at

the bell, which Sebastian ran quickly to answer. “Only Herr

Sesemann rings like that,” he said to himself; “he must have

returned home unexpectedly.” He pulled open the door, and there

in front of him he saw a ragged little boy carrying a hand-organ

on his back.

 

“What’s the meaning of this?” said Sebastian angrily. “I’ll

teach you to ring bells like that! What do you want here?”

 

“I want to see Clara,” the boy answered.

 

“You dirty, good-for-nothing little rascal, can’t you be polite

enough to say ‘Miss Clara’? What do you want with her?”

continued Sebastian roughly. “She owes me fourpence,” explained

the boy.

 

“You must be out of your mind! And how do you know that any

young lady of that name lives here?”

 

“She owes me twopence for showing her the way there, and

twopence for showing her the way back.”

 

“See what a pack of lies you are telling! The young lady never

goes out, cannot even walk; be off and get back to where you

came from, before I have to help you along.”

 

But the boy was not to be frightened away; he remained standing,

and said in a determined voice, “But I saw her in the street,

and can describe her to you; she has short, curly black hair, and

black eyes, and wears a brown dress, and does not talk quite

like we do.”

 

“Oho!” thought Sebastian, laughing to himself, “the little miss

has evidently been up to more mischief.” Then, drawing the boy

inside he said aloud, “I understand now, come with me and wait

outside the door till I tell you to go in. Be sure you begin

playing your organ the instant you get inside the room; the lady

is very fond of music.”

 

Sebastian knocked at the study door, and a voice said, “Come

in.”

 

“There is a boy outside who says he must speak to Miss Clara

herself,” Sebastian announced.

 

Clara was delighted at such an extraordinary and unexpected

message.

 

“Let him come in at once,” replied Clara; “he must come in, must

he not,” she added, turning to her tutor, “if he wishes so

particularly to see me?”

 

The boy was already inside the room, and according to

Sebastian’s directions immediately began to play his organ.

Fraulein Rottenmeier, wishing to escape the A B C, had retired

with her work to the dining-room. All at once she stopped and

listened. Did those sounds come up from the street? And yet they

seemed so near! But how could there be an organ playing in the

study? And yet—it surely was so. She rushed to the other end of

the long dining-room and tore open the door. She could hardly

believe her eyes. There, in the middle of the study, stood a

ragged boy turning away at his organ in the most energetic

manner. The tutor appeared to be making efforts to speak, but his

voice could not be heard. Both children were listening

delightedly to the music.

 

“Leave off! leave off at once!” screamed Fraulein Rottenmeier.

But her voice was drowned by the music. She was making a dash

for the boy, when she saw something on the ground crawling

towards her feet—a dreadful dark object—a tortoise. At this

sight she jumped higher than she had for many long years before,

shrieking with all her might, “Sebastian! Sebastian!”

 

The organ-player suddenly stopped, for this time her voice had

risen louder than the music. Sebastian was standing outside bent

double with laughter, for he had been peeping to see what was

going on. By the time he entered the room Fraulein Rottenmeier

had sunk into a chair.

 

“Take them all out, boy and animal! Get them away at once!” she

commanded him.

 

Sebastian pulled the boy away, the latter having quickly caught

up the tortoise, and when he had got him outside he put

something into his hand. “There is the fourpence from Miss Clara,

and another fourpence for the music. You did it all quite right!”

and with that he shut the front door upon him.

 

Quietness reigned again in the study, and lessons began once

more; Fraulein Rottenmeier now took up her station in the study

in order by her presence to prevent any further dreadful goings-on.

 

But soon another knock came to the door, and Sebastian again

stepped in, this time to say that some one had brought a large

basket with orders that it was to be given at once to Miss

Clara.

 

“For me?” said Clara in astonishment, her curiosity very much

excited, “bring it in at once that I may see what it is like.”

 

Sebastian carried in a large covered basket and retired.

 

“I think the lessons had better be finished first before the

basket is unpacked,” said Fraulein Rottenmeier.

 

Clara could not conceive what was in it, and cast longing

glances towards it. In the middle of one of her declensions she

suddenly broke off and said to the tutor, “Mayn’t I just give one

peep inside to see what is in it before I go on?”

 

“On some considerations I am for it, on others against it,” he

began in answer; “for it, on the ground that if your whole

attention is directed to the basket—” but the speech remained

unfinished. The cover of the basket was loose, and at this

moment one, two, three, and then two more, and again more kittens

came suddenly tumbling on to the floor and racing about the room

in every direction, and with such indescribable rapidity that it

seemed as if the whole room was full of them. They jumped over

the tutor’s boots, bit at his trousers, climbed up Fraulein

Rottenmeier’s dress, rolled about her feet, sprang up on to

Clara’s couch, scratching, scrambling, and mewing: it was a sad

scene of confusion. Clara, meanwhile, pleased with their

gambols, kept on exclaiming, “Oh, the dear little things! how

pretty they are! Look, Heidi, at this one; look, look, at that

one over there!” And Heidi in her delight kept running after them

first into one corner and then into the other. The tutor stood up

by the table not knowing what to do, lifting first his right foot

and then his left to get it away from the scrambling, scratching

kittens. Fraulein Rottenmeier was unable at first to speak at

all, so overcome was she with horror, and she did not dare rise

from her chair for fear that all the dreadful little animals

should jump upon her at once. At last she found voice to call

loudly, “Tinette! Tinette! Sebastian! Sebastian!”

 

They came in answer to her summons and gathered up the kittens,

by degrees they got them all inside the basket again and then

carried them off to put with the other two.

 

To-day again there had been no opportunity for gaping. Late that

evening, when Fraulein Rottenmeier had somewhat recovered from

the excitement of the morning, she sent for the two servants,

and examined them closely concerning the events of the morning.

And then it came out that Heidi was at the bottom of them,

everything being the result of her excursion of the day before.

Fraulein Rottenmeier sat pale with indignation and did not know

at first how to express her anger. Then she made a sign to

Tinette and Sebastian to withdraw, and turning to Heidi, who was

standing by Clara’s couch, quite unable to understand of what sin

she had been guilty, began in a severe voice,—

 

“Adelaide, I know of only one punishment which will perhaps make

you alive to your ill conduct, for you are an utter little

barbarian, but we will see if we cannot tame you so that you

shall not be guilty of such deeds again, by putting you in a

dark cellar with the rats and black beetles.”

 

Heidi listened in silence and surprise to her sentence, for she

had never seen a cellar such as was now described; the place

known at her grandfather’s as the cellar, where the fresh made

cheeses and the new milk were kept, was a pleasant and inviting

place; neither did she know at all what rats and black beetles

were like.

 

But now Clara interrupted in great distress. “No, no, Fraulein

Rottenmeier, you must wait till papa comes; he has written to

say that he will soon be home, and then I will tell him

everything, and he will say what is to be done with Heidi.”

 

Fraulein Rottenmeier could not do anything against this superior

authority, especially as the father was really expected very

shortly. She rose and said with some displeasure, “As you will,

Clara, but I too shall have something to say to Herr Sesemann.”

And with that she left the room.

 

Two days now went by without further disturbance. Fraulein

Rottenmeier, however, could not recover her equanimity; she was

perpetually reminded by Heidi’s presence of the deception that

had been played upon her, and it seemed to her that ever since

the child had come into the house everything had been topsy-turvy, and she could not bring things into proper order again.

Clara had grown much more cheerful; she no longer found time hang

heavy during the lesson hours, for Heidi was continually making a

diversion of some kind or other. She jumbled all