Heidi by Johanna Spyri (dark academia books to read txt) 📕

their return home. Peter disappeared with the remainder of his

flock. Heidi tenderly stroked the two goats in turn, running

first to one side of them and then the other, and jumping about

in her glee at the pretty little animals. “Are they ours,

grandfather? Are they both ours? Are you going to put them in the

shed? Will they always stay with us?”

Heidi’s questions came tumbling out one after the other, so that

her grandfather had only time to answer each of them with “Yes,

yes.” When the goats had finished licking up the salt her

grandfather told her to go and fetch her bowl and the bread.

Heidi obeyed and was soon back again. The grandfather milked the

white goat and filled her basin, and then breaking off a piece

of bread, “Now eat your supper,” he said, “and then go up to bed.

Cousin Dete left another little bundle for you with a nightgown

and other small things in it, which you will find at the bottom

of the cupboard if you want them. I must go and shut up the

goats, so be off and sleep well.”

“Good-night, grandfather! good-night. What are their names,

grandfather, what are their names?” she called out as she ran

after his retreating figure and the goats.

“The white one is named Little Swan, and the brown one Little

Bear,” he answered.

“Good-night, Little Swan, good-night, Little Bear!” she called

again at the top of her voice, for they were already inside the

shed. Then she sat down on the seat and began to eat and drink,

but the wind was so strong that it almost blew her away; so she

made haste and finished her supper and then went indoors and

climbed up to her bed, where she was soon lying as sweetly and

soundly asleep as any young princess on her couch of silk.

Not long after, and while it was still twilight, the grandfather

also went to bed, for he was up every morning at sunrise, and

the sun came climbing up over the mountains at a very early hour

during these summer months. The wind grew so tempestuous during

the night, and blew in such gusts against the walls, that the

hut trembled and the old beams groaned and creaked. It came

howling and wailing down the chimney like voices of those in

pain, and it raged with such fury among the old fir trees that

here and there a branch was snapped and fell. In the middle of

the night the old man got up. “The child will be frightened,” he

murmured half aloud. He mounted the ladder and went and stood by

the child’s bed.

Outside the moon was struggling with the dark, fast-driving

clouds, which at one moment left it clear and shining, and the

next swept over it, and all again was dark. Just now the

moonlight was falling through the round window straight on to

Heidi’s bed. She lay under the heavy coverlid, her cheeks rosy

with sleep, her head peacefully resting on her little round arm,

and with a happy expression on her baby face as if dreaming of

something pleasant. The old man stood looking down on the

sleeping child until the moon again disappeared behind the

clouds and he could see no more, then he went back to bed.

CHAPTER III. OUT WITH THE GOATS

Heidi was awakened early the next morning by a loud whistle; the

sun was shining through the round window and falling in golden

rays on her bed and on the large heap of hay, and as she opened

her eyes everything in the loft seemed gleaming with gold. She

looked around her in astonishment and could not imagine for a

while where she was. But her grandfather’s deep voice was now

heard outside, and then Heidi began to recall all that had

happened: how she had come away from her former home and was now

on the mountain with her grandfather instead of with old Ursula.

The latter was nearly stone deaf and always felt cold, so that

she sat all day either by the hearth in the kitchen or by the

sitting-room stove, and Heidi had been obliged to stay close to

her, for the old woman was so deaf that she could not tell where

the child was if out of her sight. And Heidi, shut up within the

four walls, had often longed to be out of doors. So she felt

very happy this morning as she woke up in her new home and

remembered all the many new things that she had seen the day

before and which she would see again that day, and above all she

thought with delight of the two dear goats. Heidi jumped quickly

out of bed and a very few minutes sufficed her to put on the

clothes which she had taken off the night before, for there were

not many of them. Then she climbed down the ladder and ran

outside the hut. There stood Peter already with his flock of

goats, and the grandfather was just bringing his two out of the

shed to join the others. Heidi ran forward to wish good-morning

to him and the goats.

“Do you want to go with them on to the mountain?” asked her

grandfather. Nothing could have pleased Heidi better, and she

jumped for joy in answer.

“But you must first wash and make yourself tidy. The sun that

shines so brightly overhead will else laugh at you for being

dirty; see, I have put everything ready for you,” and her

grandfather pointed as he spoke to a large tub full of water,

which stood in the sun before the door. Heidi ran to it and

began splashing and rubbing, till she quite glistened with

cleanliness. The grandfather meanwhile went inside the hut,

calling to Peter to follow him and bring in his wallet. Peter

obeyed with astonishment, and laid down the little bag which held

his meagre dinner.

“Open it,” said the old man, and inside it he put a large piece

of bread and an equally large piece of cheese, which made Peter

open his eyes, for each was twice the size of the two portions

which he had for his own dinner.

“There, now there is only the little bowl to add,” continued the

grandfather, “for the child cannot drink her milk as you do from

the goat; she is not accustomed to that. You must milk two

bowlfuls for her when she has her dinner, for she is going with

you and will remain with you till you return this evening; but

take care she does not fall over any of the rocks, do you hear?”

Heidi now came running in. “Will the sun laugh at me now,

grandfather?” she asked anxiously. Her grandfather had left a

coarse towel hanging up for her near the tub, and with this she

had so thoroughly scrubbed her face, arms, and neck, for fear of

the sun, that as she stood there she was as red all over as a

lobster. He gave a little laugh.

“No, there is nothing for him to laugh at now,” he assured her.

“But I tell you what—when you come home this evening, you will

have to get right into the tub, like a fish, for if you run

about like the goats you will get your feet dirty. Now you can be

off.”

She started joyfully for the mountain. During the night the wind

had blown away all the clouds; the dark blue sky was spreading

overhead, and in its midst was the bright sun shining down on

the green slopes of the mountain, where the flowers opened their

little blue and yellow cups, and looked up to him smiling. Heidi

went running hither and thither and shouting with delight, for

here were whole patches of delicate red primroses, and there the

blue gleam of the lovely gentian, while above them all laughed

and nodded the tender-leaved golden cistus. Enchanted with all

this waving field of brightly-colored flowers, Heidi forgot even

Peter and the goats. She ran on in front and then off to the

side, tempted first one way and then the other, as she caught

sight of some bright spot of glowing red or yellow. And all the

while she was plucking whole handfuls of the flowers which she

put into her little apron, for she wanted to take them all home

and stick them in the hay, so that she might make her bedroom

look just like the meadows outside. Peter had therefore to be on

the alert, and his round eyes, which did not move very quickly,

had more work than they could well manage, for the goats were as

lively as Heidi; they ran in all directions, and Peter had to

follow whistling and calling and swinging his stick to get all

the runaways together again.

“Where have you got to now, Heidi?” he called out somewhat

crossly.

“Here,” called back a voice from somewhere. Peter could see no

one, for Heidi was seated on the ground at the foot of a small

hill thickly overgrown with sweet smelling prunella; the whole

air seemed filled with its fragrance, and Heidi thought she had

never smelt anything so delicious. She sat surrounded by the

flowers, drawing in deep breaths of the scented air.

“Come along here!” called Peter again. “You are not to fall over

the rocks, your grandfather gave orders that you were not to do

so.”

“Where are the rocks?” asked Heidi, answering him back. But she

did not move from her seat, for the scent of the flowers seemed

sweeter to her with every breath of wind that wafted it towards

her.

“Up above, right up above. We have a long way to go yet, so come

along! And on the topmost peak of all the old bird of prey sits

and croaks.”

That did it. Heidi immediately sprang to her feet and ran up to

Peter with her apron full of flowers.

“You have got enough now,” said the boy as they began climbing

up again together. “You will stay here forever if you go on

picking, and if you gather all the flowers now there will be none

for tomorrow.”

This last argument seemed a convincing one to Heidi, and

moreover her apron was already so full that there was hardly room

for another flower, and it would never do to leave nothing to

pick for another day. So she now kept with Peter, and the goats

also became more orderly in their behavior, for they were

beginning to smell the plants they loved that grew on the higher

slopes and clambered up now without pause in their anxiety to

reach them. The spot where Peter generally halted for his goats

to pasture and where he took up his quarters for the day lay at

the foot of the high rocks, which were covered for some distance

up by bushes and fir trees, beyond which rose their bare and

rugged summits. On one side of the mountain the rock was split

into deep clefts, and the grandfather had reason to warn Peter of

danger. Having climbed as far as the halting-place, Peter unslung

his wallet and put it carefully in a little hollow of the ground,

for he knew what the wind was like up there and did not want to

see his precious belongings sent rolling down the mountain by a

sudden gust. Then be threw himself at full length on the warm

ground, for he was tired after all his exertions.

Heidi meanwhile had unfastened her apron and rolling it

carefully round the flowers laid it beside Peter’s wallet inside

the hollow;