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

her letters up

together and seemed quite unable to learn them, and when the

tutor tried to draw her attention to their different shapes, and

to help her by showing her that this was like a little horn, or

that like a bird’s bill, she would suddenly exclaim in a joyful

voice, “That is a goat!” “That is a bird of prey!” For the

tutor’s descriptions suggested all kinds of pictures to her mind,

but left her still incapable of the alphabet. In the later

afternoons Heidi always sat with Clara, and then she would give

the latter many and long descriptions of the mountain and of her

life upon it, and the burning longing to return would become so

overpowering that she always finished with the words, “Now I must

go home! tomorrow I must really go!” But Clara would try to

quiet her, and tell Heidi that she must wait till her father

returned, and then they would see what was to be done. And if

Heidi gave in each time and seemed quickly to regain her good

spirits, it was because of a secret delight she had in the

thought that every day added two more white rolls to the number

she was collecting for grandmother; for she always pocketed the

roll placed beside her plate at dinner and supper, feeling that

she could not bear to eat them, knowing that grandmother had no

white bread and could hardly eat the black bread which was so

hard. After dinner Heidi had to sit alone in her room for a

couple of hours, for she understood now that she might not run

about outside at Frankfurt as she did on the mountain, and so she

did not attempt it. Any conversation with Sebastian in the dining-room was also forbidden her, and as to Tinette, she kept out of

her way, and never thought of speaking to her, for Heidi was

quite aware that the maid looked scornfully at her and always

spoke to her in a mocking voice. So Heidi had plenty of time from

day to day to sit and picture how everything at home was now

turning green, and how the yellow flowers were shining in the

sun, and how all around lay bright in the warm sunshine, the snow

and the rocks, and the whole wide valley, and Heidi at times

could hardly contain herself for the longing to be back home

again. And Dete had told her that she could go home whenever she

liked. So it came about one day that Heidi felt she could not

bear it any longer, and in haste she tied all the rolls up in her

red shawl, put on her straw hat, and went downstairs. But just as

she reached the hall-door she met Fraulein Rottenmeier herself,

just returning from a walk, which put a stop to Heidi’s journey.

 

Fraulein Rottenmeier stood still a moment, looking at her from

top to toe in blank astonishment, her eye resting particularly

on the red bundle. Then she broke out,—

 

“What have you dressed yourself like that for? What do you mean

by this? Have I not strictly forbidden you to go running about

in the streets? And here you are ready to start off again, and

going out looking like a beggar.”

 

“I was not going to run about, I was going home,” said Heidi,

frightened.

 

“What are you talking about! Going home! You want to go home?”

exclaimed Fraulein Rottenmeier, her anger rising. “To run away

like that! What would Herr Sesemann say if he knew! Take care

that he never hears of this! And what is the matter with his

house, I should like to know! Have you not been better treated

than you deserved? Have you wanted for a thing? Have you ever in

your life before had such a house to live in, such a table, or

so many to wait upon you? Have you?”

 

“No,” replied Heidi.

 

“I should think not indeed!” continued the exasperated lady.

“You have everything you can possibly want here, and you are an

ungrateful little thing; it’s because you are too well off and

comfortable that you have nothing to do but think what naughty

thing you can do next!”

 

Then Heidi’s feelings got the better of her, and she poured

forth her trouble. “Indeed I only want to go home, for if I stay

so long away Snowflake will begin crying again, and grandmother

is waiting for me, and Greenfinch will get beaten, because I am

not there to give Peter any cheese, and I can never see how the

sun says good-night to the mountains; and if the great bird were

to fly over Frankfurt he would croak louder than ever about

people huddling all together and teaching each other bad things,

and not going to live up on the rocks, where it is so much

better.”

 

“Heaven have mercy on us, the child is out of her mind!” cried

Fraulein Rottenmeier, and she turned in terror and went quickly

up the steps, running violently against Sebastian in her hurry.

“Go and bring that unhappy little creature in at once,” she

ordered him, putting her hand to her forehead which she had

bumped against his.

 

Sebastian did as he was told, rubbing his own head as he went,

for he had received a still harder blow.

 

Heidi had not moved, she stood with her eyes aflame and

trembling all over with inward agitation.

 

“What, got into trouble again?” said Sebastian in a cheerful

voice; but when he looked more closely at Heidi and saw that she

did not move, he put his hand kindly on her shoulder, and said,

trying to comfort her, “There, there, don’t take it to heart so

much; keep up your spirits, that is the great thing! She has

nearly made a hole in my head, but don’t you let her bully you.”

Then seeing that Heidi still did not stir, “We must go; she

ordered me to take you in.”

 

Heidi now began mounting the stairs, but with a slow, crawling

step, very unlike her usual manner. Sebastian felt quite sad as

he watched her, and as he followed her up he kept trying to

encourage her. “Don’t you give in! don’t let her make you

unhappy! You keep up your courage! Why we’ve got such a sensible

little miss that she has never cried once since she was here;

many at that age cry a good dozen times a day. The kittens are

enjoying themselves very much up in their home; they jump about

all over the place and behave as if they were little mad things.

Later we will go up and see them, when Fraulein is out of the

way, shall we?”

 

Heidi gave a little nod of assent, but in such a joyless manner

that it went to Sebastian’s heart, and he followed her with

sympathetic eyes as she crept away to her room.

 

At supper that evening Fraulein Rottenmeier did not speak, but

she cast watchful looks towards Heidi as if expecting her at any

minute to break out in some extraordinary way; but Heidi sat

without moving or eating; all that she did was to hastily hide

her roll in her pocket.

 

When the tutor arrived next morning, Fraulein Rottenmeier drew

him privately aside, and confided her fear to him that the

change of air and the new mode of life and unaccustomed

surroundings had turned Heidi’s head; then she told him of the

incident of the day before, and of Heidi’s strange speech. But

the tutor assured her she need not be in alarm; he had already

become aware that the child was somewhat eccentric, but otherwise

quite right in her mind, and he was sure that, with careful

treatment and education, the right balance would be restored, and

it was this he was striving after. He was the more convinced of

this by what he now heard, and by the fact that he had so far

failed to teach her the alphabet, Heidi seeming unable to

understand the letters.

 

Fraulein Rottenmeier was considerably relieved by his words, and

released the tutor to his work. In the course of the afternoon

the remembrance of Heidi’s appearance the day before, as she was

starting out on her travels, suddenly returned to the lady, and

she made up her mind that she would supplement the child’s

clothing with various garments from Clara’s wardrobe, so as to

give her a decent appearance when Herr Sesemann returned. She

confided her intention to Clara, who was quite willing to make

over any number of dresses and hats to Heidi; so the lady went

upstairs to overhaul the child’s belongings and see what was to

be kept and what thrown away. She returned, however, in the

course of a few minutes with an expression of horror upon her

face.

 

“What is this, Adelaide, that I find in your wardrobe!” she

exclaimed. “I never heard of any one doing such a thing before!

In a cupboard meant for clothes, Adelaide, what do I see at the

bottom but a heap of rolls! Will you believe it, Clara, bread in

a wardrobe! a whole pile of bread! Tinette,” she called to that

young woman, who was in the dining-room,” go upstairs and take

away all those rolls out of Adelaide’s cupboard and the old

straw hat on the table.”

 

“No! no!” screamed Heidi. “I must keep the hat, and the rolls

are for grandmother,” and she was rushing to stop Tinette when

Fraulein Rottenmeier took hold of her. “You will stop here, and

all that bread and rubbish shall be taken to the place they

belong to,” she said in a determined tone as she kept her hand

on the child to prevent her running forward.

 

Then Heidi in despair flung herself down on Clara’s couch and

broke into a wild fit of weeping, her crying becoming louder and

more full of distress, every minute, while she kept on sobbing

out at intervals, “Now grandmother’s’ bread is all gone! They

were all for grandmother, and now they are taken away, and

grandmother won’t have one,” and she wept as if her heart would

break. Fraulein Rottenmeier ran out of the room. Clara was

distressed and alarmed at the child’s crying. “Heidi, Heidi,”

she said imploringly, “pray do not cry so! listen to me; don’t be

so unhappy; look now, I promise you that you shall have just as

many rolls, or more, all fresh and new to take to grandmother

when you go home; yours would have been hard and stale by then.

Come, Heidi, do not cry any more!”

 

Heidi could not get over her sobs for a long time; she would

never have been able to leave off crying at all if it had not

been for Clara’s promise, which comforted her. But to make sure

that she could depend upon it she kept on saying to Clara, her

voice broken with her gradually subsiding sobs, “Will you give

me as many, quite as many, as I had, for grandmother?” And Clara

assured her each time that she would give her as many, “or

more,” she added, “only be happy again.”

 

Heidi appeared at supper with her eyes red with weeping, and

when she saw her roll she could not suppress a sob. But she made

an effort to control herself, for she knew she must sit quietly

at table. Whenever Sebastian could catch her eye this evening he

made all sorts of strange signs, pointing to his own head and

then to hers, and giving little nods as much as to say, “Don’t

you be unhappy! I have got it all safe for you.”

 

When Heidi was going to get into bed that night she found her

old