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

>very talkative and then very sleepy, so that they leant back in

their seats and became silent. As midnight struck, Sebastian

roused himself and called to his companion, who, however, was not

easy to wake, and kept rolling his head first to one side and

then the other and continuing to sleep. Sebastian began to listen

more attentively, for he was wide awake now. Everything was still

as a mouse, all sound had died away from the streets even. He did

not feel inclined to go to sleep again, for the stillness was

ghostly to him, and he was afraid now to raise his voice to rouse

John, so he shook him gently to make him stir. At last, as one

struck, John work up, and came back to the consciousness of why

he was sitting in a chair instead of lying in his bed. He now got

up with a great show of courage and said, “Come, Sebastian, we

must go outside and see what is going on; you need not be afraid,

just follow me.”

 

Whereupon he opened the door wide and stepped into the hall.

Just as he did so a sudden gust of air blew through the open

front door and put out the light which John held in his hand. He

started back, almost overturning Sebastian, whom he clutched and

pulled back into the room, and then shutting the door quickly he

turned the key as far as he could make it go. Then he pulled out

his matches and lighted his candle again. Sebastian, in the

suddenness of the affair, did not know exactly what had

happened, for he had not seen the open door or felt the breeze

behind John’s broad figure. But now, as he saw the latter in the

light, he gave a cry of alarm, for John was trembling all over

and as white as a ghost. “What’s the matter? What did you see,

outside?” asked Sebastian sympathetically.

 

“The door partly open,” gasped John, “and a white figure

standing at the top of the steps—there it stood, and then all in

a minute it disappeared.”

 

Sebastian felt his blood run cold. The two sat down close to one

another and did not dare move again till the morning broke and

the streets began to be alive again. Then they left the room

together, shut the front door, and went upstairs to tell

Fraulein Rottenmeier of their experience. She was quite ready to

receive them, for she had not been able to sleep at all in the

anxiety of waiting to hear their report. They had no sooner given

her details of the night’s experience than she sat down and wrote

straight off to Herr Sesemann, who had never received such a

letter before in his life. She could hardly write, she told him,

for her fingers were stiff with fear, and Herr Sesemann must

please arrange to come back at once, for dreadful and

unaccountable things were taking place at home. Then she entered

into particulars of all that had happened, of how the door was

found standing open every morning, and how nobody in the house

now felt sure of their life in this unprotected state of things,

and how it was impossible to tell what terrible results might

follow on these mysterious doings.

 

Herr Sesemann answered that it was quite impossible for him to

arrange to leave his business and return home at once. He was

very much astonished at this ghost tale, but hoped by this time

the ghost had disappeared. If, however, it still continued to

disturb the household, would Fraulein Rottenmeier write to the

grandmother and ask her if she could come and do something; she,

he was sure, would soon find out a way to deal with the ghost so

that it would not venture again to haunt his house. Fraulein

Rottenmeier was not pleased with the tone of this letter; she

did not think the matter was treated seriously enough. She wrote

off without delay to Frau Sesemann, but got no more satisfactory

reply from that quarter, and some remarks in the letter she

considered were quite offensive. Frau Sesemann wrote that she

did not feel inclined to take the journey again from Holstein to

Frankfurt because Rottenmeier fancied she saw ghosts. There had

never been a ghost in the house since she had known it, and if

there was one now it must be a live one, with which Rottenmeier

ought to be able to deal; if not she had better send for the

watchman to help her.

 

Fraulein Rottenmeier, however, was determined not to pass any

more days in a state of fear, and she knew the right course to

pursue. She had as yet said nothing to the children of the

ghostly apparitions, for she knew if she did that the children

would not remain alone for a single moment, and that might

entail discomfort for herself. But now she walked straight off

into the study, and there in a low mysterious voice told the two

children everything that had taken place. Clara immediately

screamed out that she could not remain another minute alone, her

father must come home, and Fraulein Rottenmeier must sleep in her

room at night, and Heidi too must not be left by herself, for the

ghost might do something to her. She insisted that they should

all sleep together in one room and keep a light burning all

night, and Tinette had better be in the next room, and Sebastian

and John come upstairs and spend the night in the hall, so that

they might call out and frighten the ghost the instant they saw

it appear on the steps. Clara, in short, grew very excited, and

Fraulein Rottenmeier had great difficulty in quieting her. She

promised to write at once to her father, and to have her bed put

in her room and not to be left alone for a moment. They could

not all sleep in the same room, but if Heidi was frightened, why

Tinette must go into her room. But Heidi was far more frightened

of Tinette than of ghosts, of which the child had never before

heard, so she assured the others she did not mind the ghost, and

would rather be alone at night.

 

Fraulein Rottenmeier now sat down to write another letter to

Herr Sesemann, stating that these unaccountable things that were

going on in the house had so affected his daughter’s delicate

constitution that the worst consequences might be expected.

Epileptic fits and St. Vitus’s dance often came on suddenly in

cases like this, and Clara was liable to be attacked by either

if the cause of the general alarm was not removed.

 

The letter was successful, and two days later Herr Sesemann

stood at his front door and rang the bell in such a manner that

everybody came rushing from all parts of the house and stood

looking affrighted at everybody else, convinced that the ghost

was impudently beginning its evil tricks in daylight. Sebastian

peeped cautiously through a half-closed shutter; as he did so

there came another violent ring at the bell, which it was

impossible to mistake for anything but a very hard pull from a

non-ghostly hand. And Sebastian recognised whose hand it was,

and rushing pell-mell out of the room, fell heels over head

downstairs, but picked himself up at the bottom and flung open

the street door. Herr Sesemann greeted him abruptly and went up

without a moment’s delay into his daughter’s room. Clara greeted

him with a cry of joy, and seeing her so lively and apparently

as well as ever, his face cleared, and the frown of anxiety

passed gradually away from it as he heard from his daughter’s own

lips that she had nothing the matter with her, and moreover was

so delighted to see him that she was quite glad about the ghost,

as it was the cause of bringing him home again.

 

“And how is the ghost getting on?” he asked, turning to Fraulein

Rottenmeier, with a twinkle of amusement in his eye.

 

“It is no joke, I assure you,” replied that lady. “You will not

laugh yourself tomorrow morning, Herr Sesemann; what is going

on in the house points to some terrible thing that has taken

place in the past and been concealed.”

 

“Well, I know nothing about that,” said the master of the house,

“but I must beg you not to bring suspicion on my worthy

ancestors. And now will you kindly call Sebastian into the dining-room, as I wish to speak to him alone.”

 

Herr Sesemann had been quite aware that Sebastian and Fraulein

Rottenmeier were not on the best of terms, and he had his ideas

about this scare.

 

“Come here, lad,” he said as Sebastian appeared, “and tell me

frankly—have you been playing at ghosts to amuse yourself at

Fraulein Rottenmeier’s expense?”

 

“No, on my honor, sir; pray, do not think it; I am very

uncomfortable about the matter myself,” answered Sebastian with

unmistakable truthfulness.

 

“Well, if that is so, I will show you and John tomorrow morning

how ghosts look in the daylight. You ought to be ashamed of

yourself, Sebastian, a great strong lad like you, to run away

from a ghost! But now go and take a message to my old friend the

doctor; give him my kind regards, and ask him if he will come to

me to-night at nine o’clock without fail; I have come by express

from Paris to consult him. I shall want him to spend the night

here, so bad a case is it; so he will arrange accordingly. You

understand?”

 

“Yes, sir,” replied Sebastian, “I will see to the matter as you

wish.” Then Herr Sesemann returned to Clara, and begged her to

have no more fear, as he would soon find out all about the ghost

and put an end to it.

 

Punctually at nine o’clock, after the children had gone to bed

and Fraulein Rottenmeier had retired, the doctor arrived. He was

a grey-haired man with a fresh face, and two bright, kindly

eyes. He looked anxious as he walked in, but, on catching sight

of his patient, burst out laughing and clapped him on the

shoulder. “Well,” he said, “you look pretty bad for a person that

I am to sit up with all night.”

 

“Patience, friend,” answered Herr Sesemann, “the one you have to

sit up for will look a good deal worse when we have once caught

him.”

 

“So there is a sick person in the house, and one that has first

to be caught?”

 

“Much worse than that, doctor! a ghost in the house! My house is

haunted!”

 

The doctor laughed aloud.

 

“That’s a nice way of showing sympathy, doctor!” continued Herr,

Sesemann. “It’s a pity my friend Rottenmeier cannot hear you.

She is firmly convinced that some old member of the family is

wandering about the house doing penance for some awful crime he

committed.”

 

“How did she become acquainted with him?” asked the doctor,

still very much amused.

 

So Herr Sesemann recounted to him how the front door was nightly

opened by somebody, according to the testimony of the combined

household, and he had therefore provided two loaded revolvers,

so as to be prepared for anything that happened; for either the

whole thing was a joke got up by some friend of the servants,

just to alarm the household while he was away—and in that case

a pistol fired into the air would procure him a wholesome fright—

or else it was a thief, who, by leading everybody at first to

think there was a ghost, made it safe for himself when he came

later to steal, as no one would venture to run out if they heard

him, and in