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

the grandmother

pushed her spinning-wheel aside and sat in eager expectation

waiting for Heidi to begin. Heidi turned over the leaves and read

a line out softly to herself here and there. At last she said,

 

“Here is one about the sun, grandmother, I will read you that.”

And Heidi began, reading with more and more warmth of expression

as she went on,—

 

The morning breaks, And warm and bright The earth lies still

In the golden light— For Dawn has scattered the clouds of

night.

 

God’s handiwork Is seen around, Things great and small To His

praise abound— Where are the signs of His love not found?

 

All things must pass, But God shall still With steadfast

power His will fulfil— Sure and unshaken is His will.

 

His saving grace Will never fail, Though grief and fear The

heart assail— O’er life’s wild seas He will prevail.

 

Joy shall be ours In that garden blest, Where after storm We

find our rest— I wait in peace—God’s time is best.

 

The grandmother sat with folded hands and a look of

indescribable joy on her face, such as Heidi had never seen there

before, although at the same time the tears were running down her

cheeks. As Heidi finished, she implored her, saying, “Read it

once again, child, just once again.”

 

And the child began again, with as much pleasure in the verses

as the grandmother,—

 

Joy shall be ours In that garden blest, Where after storm We

find our rest— I wait in peace—God’s time is best.

 

“Ah, Heidi, that brings light to the heart! What comfort you

have brought me!”

 

And the old woman kept on repeating the glad words, while Heidi

beamed with happiness, and she could not take her eyes away from

the grandmother’s face, which had never looked like that before.

It had no longer the old troubled expression, but was alight

with peace and joy as if she were already looking with clear new

eyes into the garden or Paradise.

 

Some one now knocked at the window and Heidi looked up and saw

her grandfather beckoning her to come home with him. She

promised the grandmother before leaving her that she would be

with her the next day, and even if she went out with Peter she

would only spend half the day with him, for the thought that she

might make it light and happy again for the grandmother gave her

the greatest pleasure, greater even than being out on the sunny

mountain with the flowers and goats. As she was going out

Brigitta ran to her with the frock and hat she had left. Heidi

put the dress over her arm, for, as she thought to herself, the

grandfather had seen that before, but she obstinately refused to

take back the hat; Brigitta could keep it, for she should never

put it on her head again. Heidi was so full of her morning’s

doings that she began at once to tell her grandfather all about

them: how the white bread could be fetched every day from Dorfli

if there was money for it, and how the grandmother had all at

once grown stronger and happier, and light had come to her. Then

she returned to the subject of the rolls. “If the grandmother

won’t take the money, grandfather, will you give it all to me,

and I can then give Peter enough every day to buy a roll and two

on Sunday?”

 

“But how about the bed?” said her grandfather. “It would be nice

for you to have a proper bed, and there would then be plenty for

the bread.”

 

But Heidi gave her grandfather no peace till he consented to do

what she wanted; she slept a great deal better, she said, on her

bed of hay than on her fine pillowed bed in Frankfurt. So at

last he said, “The money is yours, do what you like with it; you

can buy bread for grandmother for years to come with it.”

 

Heidi shouted for joy at the thought that grandmother would

never need any more to eat hard black bread, and “Oh,

grandfather!” she said, “everything is happier now than it has

ever been in our lives before!” and she sang and skipped along,

holding her grandfather’s hand as lighthearted as a bird. But

all at once she grew quiet and said, “If God had let me come at

once, as I prayed, then everything would have been different, I

should only have had a little bread to bring to grandmother, and

I should not have been able to read, which is such a comfort to

her; but God has arranged it all so much better than I knew how

to; everything has happened just as the other grandmother said it

would. Oh, how glad I am that God did not let me have at once all

I prayed and wept for! And now I shall always pray to God as she

told me, and always thank Him, and when He does not do anything I

ask for I shall think to myself, It’s just like it was in

Frankfurt: God, I am sure, is going to do something better still.

So we will pray every day, won’t we, grandfather, and never

forget Him again, or else He may forget us.”

 

“And supposing one does forget Him?” said the grandfather in a

low voice.

 

“Then everything goes wrong, for God lets us then go where we

like, and when we get poor and miserable and begin to cry about

it no one pities us, but they say, You ran away from God, and so

God, who could have helped you, left you to yourself.”

 

“That is true, Heidi; where did you learn that?”

 

“From grandmamma; she explained it all to me.”

 

The grandfather walked on for a little while without speaking,

then he said, as if following his own train of thought: “And if

it once is so, it is so always; no one can go back, and he whom

God has forgotten, is forgotten for ever.”

 

“Oh, no, grandfather, we can go back, for grandmamma told me so,

and so it was in the beautiful tale in my book—but you have not

heard that yet; but we shall be home directly now, and then I

will read it you, and you will see how beautiful it is.” And in

her eagerness Heidi struggled faster and faster up the steep

ascent, and they were no sooner at the top than she let go her

grandfather’s hand and ran into the hut. The grandfather slung

the basket off his shoulders in which he had brought up a part

of the contents of the trunk which was too heavy to carry up as

it was. Then he sat down on his seat and began thinking.

 

Heidi soon came running out with her book under her arm. “That’s

right, grandfather,” she exclaimed as she saw he had already

taken his seat, and in a second she was beside him and had her

book open at the particular tale, for she had read it so often

that the leaves fell open at it of their own accord. And now in

a sympathetic voice Heidi began to read of the son when he was

happily at home, and went out into the fields with his father’s

flocks, and was dressed in a fine cloak, and stood leaning on

his shepherd’s staff watching as the sun went down, just as he

was to be seen in the picture. But then all at once he wanted to

have his own goods and money and to be his own master, and so he

asked his father to give him his portion, and he left his home

and went and wasted all his substance. And when he had nothing

left he hired himself out to a master who had no flocks and

fields like his father, but only swine to keep; and so he was

obliged to watch these, and he only had rags to wear and a few

husks to eat such as the swine fed upon. And then he thought of

his old happy life at home and of how kindly his father had

treated him and how ungrateful he had been, and he wept for

sorrow and longing. And he thought to himself, “I will arise and

go to my father, and will say to him, ‘Father, I am not worthy to

be called thy son; make me as one of thy hired servants.’” And

when he was yet a great way off his father saw him … Here

Heidi paused in her reading. “What do you think happens now,

grandfather?” she said. “Do you think the father is still angry

and will say to him, ‘I told you so!’ Well, listen now to what

comes next.” His father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and

fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him,

“Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and am no

more worthy to be called thy son.” But the father said to his

servants, “Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put

a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet: and bring hither the

fatted calf and kill it; and let us eat and be merry, for this my

son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.” And

they began to be merry.

 

“Isn’t that a beautiful tale, grandfather,” said Heidi, as the

latter continued to sit without speaking, for she had expected

him to express pleasure and astonishment.

 

“You are right, Heidi; it is a beautiful tale,” he replied, but

he looked so grave as he said it that Heidi grew silent herself

and sat looking quietly at her pictures. Presently she pushed

her book gently in front of him and said, “See how happy he is

there,” and she pointed with her finger to the figure of the

returned prodigal, who was standing by his father clad in fresh

raiment as one of his own sons again.

 

A few hours later, as Heidi lay fast asleep in her bed, the

grandfather went up the ladder and put his lamp down near her

bed so that the light fell on the sleeping child. Her hands were

still folded as if she had fallen asleep saying her prayers, an

expression of peace and trust lay on the little face, and

something in it seemed to appeal to the grandfather, for he

stood a long time gazing down at her without speaking. At last he

too folded his hands, and with bowed head said in a low voice,

“Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee and am not

worthy to be called thy son.” And two large tears rolled down

the old man’s cheeks.

 

Early the next morning he stood in front of his hut and gazed

quietly around him. The fresh bright morning sun lay on mountain

and valley. The sound of a few early bells rang up from the

valley, and the birds were singing their morning song in the fir

trees. He stepped back into the hut and called up, “Come along,

Heidi! the sun is up! Put on your best frock, for we are going

to church together!”

 

Heidi was not long getting ready; it was such an unusual summons

from her grandfather that she must make haste. She put on her

smart Frankfurt dress and soon went down, but when she saw her

grandfather she stood still, gazing at him in astonishment.

“Why, grandfather!” she exclaimed, “I never saw you look like

that before! and the coat with the silver buttons! Oh, you do

look nice in your Sunday coat!”