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

come,” she called out as soon as she came in sight,

“it is more beautiful than you can imagine, and perhaps this

evening it may not be so lovely. I believe I could carry you,

don’t you think I could?” Clara looked at her and shook her head.

“Why, Heidi, what can you be thinking of! you are smaller than I

am. Oh, if only I could walk!”

 

Heidi looked round as if in search of something, some new idea

had evidently come into her head. Peter was sitting up above

looking down on the two children. He had been sitting and

staring before him in the same way for hours, as if he could not

make out what he saw. He had destroyed the chair so that the

friend might not be able to move anywhere and that her visit

might come to an end, and then a little while after she had

appeared right up here under his very nose with Heidi beside her.

He thought his eyes must deceive him, and yet there she was and

no mistake about it.

 

Heidi now looked up to where he was sitting and called out in a

peremptory voice, “Peter, come down here!”

 

“I don’t wish to come,” he called in reply.

 

“But you are to, you must; I cannot do it alone, and you must

come here and help me; make haste and come down,” she called

again in an urgent voice.

 

“I shall do nothing of the kind,” was the answer.

 

Heidi ran some way up the slope towards him, and then pausing

called again, her eyes ablaze with anger, “If you don’t come at

once, Peter, I will do something to you that you won’t like; I

mean what I say.”

 

Peter felt an inward throe at these words, and a great fear

seized him. He had done something wicked which he wanted no one

to know about, and so far he had thought himself safe. But now

Heidi spoke exactly as if she knew everything, and whatever she

did know she would tell her grandfather, and there was no one he

feared so much as this latter person. Supposing he were to

suspect what had happened about the chair! Peter’s anguish of

mind grew more acute. He stood up and went down to where Heidi

was awaiting him.

 

“I am coming and you won’t do what you said.”

 

Peter appeared now so submissive with fear that Heidi felt quite

sorry for him and answered assuringly, “No, no, of course not;

come along with me, there is nothing to be afraid of in what I

want you to do.”

 

As soon as they got to Clara, Heidi gave her orders: Peter was

to take hold of her under the arms on one side and she on the

other, and together they were to lift her up. This first movement

was successfully carried through, but then came the difficulty.

As Clara could not even stand, how were they to support her and

get her along? Heidi was too small for her arm to serve Clara to

lean upon.

 

“You must put one arm well around my neck so, and put the other

through Peter’s and lean firmly upon it, then we shall be able

to carry you.”

 

Peter, however, had never given his arm to any one in his life.

Clara put hers in his, but he kept his own hanging down straight

beside him like a stick.

 

“That’s not the way, Peter,” said Heidi in an authoritative

voice. “You must put your arm out in the shape of a ring, and

Clara must put hers through it and lean her weight upon you, and

whatever you do, don’t let your arm give way; like that. I am

sure we shall be able to manage.”

 

Peter did as he was told, but still they did not get on very

well. Clara was not such a light weight, and the team did not

match very well in size; it was up one side and down the other,

so that the supports were rather wobbly.

 

Clara tried to use her own feet a little, but each time drew

them quickly back.

 

“Put your foot down firmly once,” suggested Heidi, “I am sure it

will hurt you less after that.”

 

“Do you think so?” said Clara hesitatingly, but she followed

Heidi’s advice and ventured one firm step on the ground and then

another; she called out a little as she did it; then she lifted

her foot again and went on, “Oh, that was less painful already,”

she exclaimed joyfully.

 

“Try again,” said Heidi encouragingly.

 

And Clara went on putting one foot out after another until all

at once she called out, “I can do it, Heidi! look! look! I can

make proper steps!” And Heidi cried out with even greater

delight, “Can you really make steps, can you really walk? really

walk by yourself? Oh, if only grandfather were here!” and she

continued gleefully to exclaim, “You can walk now, Clara, you can

walk!”

 

Clara still held on firmly to her supports, but with every step

she felt safer on her feet, as all three became aware, and Heidi

was beside herself with joy.

 

“Now we shall be able to come up here together every day, and go

just where we like; and you will be able all your life to walk

about as I do, and not have to be pushed in a chair, and you

will get quite strong and well. It is the greatest happiness we

could have had!”

 

And Clara heartily agreed, for she could think of no greater joy

in the world than to be strong and able to go about like other

people, and no longer to have to lie from day to day in her

invalid chair.

 

They had not far to go to reach the field of flowers, and could

already catch sight of the cistus flowers glowing gold in the

sun. As they came to the bushes of the blue bell flowers, with

sunny, inviting patches of warm ground between them, Clara said,

“Mightn’t we sit down here for a while?”

 

This was just what Heidi enjoyed, and so the children sat down

in the midst of the flowers, Clara for the first time on the dry,

warm mountain grass, and she found it indescribably delightful.

Around her were the blue flowers softly waving to and fro, and

beyond the gleaming patches of the cistus flowers and the red

centaury, while the sweet scent of the brown blossoms and of the

fragrant prunella enveloped her as she sat. Everything was so

lovely! so lovely! And Heidi, who was beside her, thought she

had never seen it so perfectly beautiful up here before, and she

did not know herself why she felt so glad at heart that she

longed to shout for joy. Then she suddenly remembered that Clara

was cured; that was the crowning delight of all that made life so

delightful in the midst of all this surrounding beauty. Clara sat

silent, overcome with the enchantment of all that her eye rested

upon, and with the anticipation of all the happiness that was now

before her. There seemed hardly room in her heart for all her

joyful emotions, and these and the ecstasy aroused by the

sunlight and the scent of the flowers, held her dumb.

 

Peter also lay among the flowers without moving or speaking, for

he was fast asleep. The breeze came blowing softly and

caressingly from behind the sheltering rocks, and passed

whisperingly through the bushes overhead. Heidi got up now and

then to run about, for the flowers waving in the warm wind

seemed to smell sweeter and to grow more thickly whichever way

she went, and she felt she must sit down at each fresh spot to

enjoy the sight and scent. So the hours went by.

 

It was long past noon when a small troop of goats advanced

solemnly towards the plain of flowers. It was not a feeding

place of theirs, for they did not care to graze on flowers. They

looked like an embassy arriving, with Greenfinch as their leader.

They had evidently come in search of their companions who had

left them in the lurch, and who had, contrary to all custom,

remained away so long, for the goats could tell the time without

mistake. As soon as Greenfinch caught sight of the three missing

friends amid the flowers she set up an extra loud bleat,

whereupon all the others joined in a chorus of bleats, and the

whole company came trotting towards the children. Peter woke up,

rubbing his eyes, for he had been dreaming that he saw the chair

again with its beautiful red padding standing whole and uninjured

before the grandfather’s door, and indeed just as he awoke he

thought he was looking at the brass-headed nails that studded it

all round, but it was only the bright yellow flowers beside him.

He experienced again a dreadful fear of mind that he had lost in

this dream of the uninjured chair. Even though Heidi had promised

not to do anything, there still remained the lively dread that

his deed might be found out in some other way. He allowed Heidi

to do what she liked with him, for he was reduced to such a state

of low spirits and meekness that he was ready to give his help to

Clara without murmur or resistance.

 

When all three had got back to their old quarters Heidi ran and

brought forward the bag, and proceeded to fulfil her promise,

for her threat of the morning had been concerned with Peter’s

dinner. She had seen her grandfather putting in all sorts of good

things, and had been pleased to think of Peter having a large

share of them, and she had meant him to understand when he

refused at first to help her that he would get nothing for his

dinner, but Peter’s conscience had put another interpretation

upon her words. Heidi took the food out of the bag and divided it

into three portions, and each was of such a goodly size that she

thought to herself, “There will be plenty of ours left for him to

have more still.”

 

She gave the other two their dinners and sat down with her own

beside Clara, and they all three ate with a good appetite after

their great exertions.

 

It ended as Heidi had expected, and Peter got as much food again

as his own share with what Clara and Heidi had over from theirs

after they had both eaten as much as they wanted. Peter ate up

every bit of food to the last crumb, but there was something

wanting to his usual enjoyment of a good dinner, for every

mouthful he swallowed seemed to choke him, and he felt something

gnawing inside him.

 

They were so late at their dinner that they had not long to wait

after they had finished before grandfather came up to fetch them.

Heidi rushed forward to meet him as soon as he appeared, as she

wanted to be the first to tell him the good news. She was so

excited that she could hardly get her words out when she did get

up to him, but he soon understood, and a look of extreme pleasure

came into his face. He hastened up to where Clara was sitting and

said with a cheerful smile, “So we’ve made the effort, have we,

and won the day!”

 

Then he lifted her up, and putting his left arm behind her and

giving her his right to lean upon, made her walk a little way,

which she did with less trembling and hesitation than before now

that