Heidi (1899)/Part 2/Chapter 2

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The mountains were glowing in the early dawn, and a fresh morning wind was blowing through the fir trees and rocking their old branches vigorously to and fro. Heidi opened her eyes; the sound had awakened her. This rushing sound always moved Heidi to the very depths of her soul and attracted her strongly to go out under the fir trees. She jumped from her bed and could hardly wait to dress herself properly; but it had to be done, for Heidi knew very well that one should always be clean and tidy.

She then came down the ladder; her grandfather's couch was already empty. She ran outdoors; there in front of the hut stood her grandfather, gazing up at the sky and all about, as he did every morning to see what the day was going to be.

Rosy clouds floated above, and the sky grew bluer and bluer, and the heights and the pasture land seemed flooded with bright gold, for the sun was just rising above the lofty cliffs.

"Oh, how beautiful! Oh, how beautiful! Good-morning, grandfather," Heidi called out as she came skipping along.

​"Well, are your eyes already opened?" said the grandfather in reply, offering his hand to Heidi to give her a morning greeting.

Then Heidi ran under the fir trees and danced with delight under the swaying boughs, as she heard the rushing and roaring above, and with every new gust of wind and loud blustering in the tree-tops she shouted for joy and jumped a little higher.

Meanwhile the grandfather had gone to the shed and had milked Schwänli and Bärli; then he brushed and washed them for their journey up the mountain, and brought them outside. When Heidi saw her friends, she ran to them and threw her arms about the necks of both of them, greeting them affectionately, and they bleated gladly and trustfully. Each of the goats was anxious to give proof of affection, and pressed closer and closer to her shoulders, so that between them she was almost crushed. But Heidi was not afraid, and when the lively Bärli butted and pushed too hard with her head Heidi said:—

"No, Bärli, you push like the big Türk," and immediately Bärli drew back her head and retreated to a proper distance, and then Schwänli stretched up her head and bleated in a superior way, so that it was plain to be seen that she thought to herself, "No one shall say of me that I behave like Türk." For the snow-white Schwänli was rather more dignified than Bärli.

Peter's whistle from below was now heard, and soon all the lively goats came leaping up the mountain, the nimble Distelfinck bounding ahead of the others. Heidi ​was at once in the midst of the flock, which jostled her hither and thither with loud, stormy greetings; she pushed them aside a little, for she wished to make her way to the timid Schneehöpli, which was always pushed away by the larger goats, when struggling to reach Heidi.

Peter now came along and gave one last, startling whistle to frighten the goats and drive them on to the pasture, for he wished to have room to say something to Heidi. The goats sprang ahead a little at this whistle, so Peter was able to come forward and stand in front of Heidi.

"You can come with me again to-day," he said, somewhat peevishly.

"No, I cannot, Peter," replied Heidi. "They may come from Frankfurt at any moment now, and I must be at home."

"You have said that a good many times already," growled Peter.

"But it is still true, and it will be true until they come," replied Heidi. "Don't you know that I must be at home, when they are coming from Frankfurt to see me? Don't you know that, Peter?"

They can come to the uncle," answered Peter with a snarl.

The grandfather's deep voice then sounded from the hut:—

"Why doesn't the army move forward? Is it the fault of the field marshal or the troops?"

In a twinkling Peter wheeled around, swung his rod ​in the air, making it whistle, and all the goats, knowing the sound well, started off, and, with Peter behind them, ran at full speed up the mountain.

Since Heidi had returned home to her grandfather, every now and then she would remember something which she had not thought of before. So every morning she tried hard to make her bed, smoothing it until it looked quite even. Then she ran about the hut, placing every chair in its place, and if anything was lying or hanging about, she put it tidily into the closet. Then she brought a cloth, climbed up on a stool, and rubbed the table until it was perfectly clean. When her grandfather came in again, he would look around him with satisfaction and say:—

"Now, it is always like Sunday here; Heidi did not go away for nothing."

To-day also, after Peter had gone, and Heidi had breakfasted with her grandfather, she set about her work; but it seemed as if she would never finish. It was such a lovely morning outdoors, and every moment something happened to interrupt her in her tasks. Now a sunbeam came in so gayly through the window, and it seemed exactly as if it said: "Come out, Heidi, come out!" So she could no longer stay in the house, and she ran out. The sparkling sunshine lay all around the hut and glistened on the mountains and far, far down in the valley, and the ground there on the cliff looked so golden and dry that she had to sit down and look around her for a little while. Then suddenly she remembered that the three-legged stool was still stand​ing in the middle of the floor, and the table had not been cleared since breakfast.

Then she jumped up quickly and ran back into the hut. But it was not long before it roared so mightily through the fir trees that Heidi felt it in every limb, and she had to go out again and dance a little with them, when all the branches above her were rocking and swaying to and fro. Her grandfather, meanwhile, had all sorts of work to do in the shop; he came out to the door from time to time and looked smilingly at Heidi as she jumped about. He was just stepping back again when Heidi suddenly screamed at the top of her voice:—

"Grandfather, grandfather! Come, come!"

He hastened out again, almost afraid that something had happened to the child. Then he saw her running toward the cliff screaming:—

"They are coming, they are coming! and the doctor first of all!"

Heidi rushed to meet her old friend. He held out his hand to greet her. When the child reached him she grasped his outstretched arm affectionately and exclaimed with the greatest joy:—

"How do you do, doctor? I thank you many thousand times!"

"Good-morning, Heidi! But what are you thanking me for?" asked the doctor with a pleasant smile.

"Because I could come home again to my grandfather," explained the child.

The doctor's face lighted up as with sunshine. Не ​had not expected such a reception in the Alps. In his sense of loneliness, all the while he was climbing the mountain, he had been wrapt in thought and had not once noticed how beautiful it was around him, and that it was growing more and more beautiful. He had supposed that the child Heidi would hardly remember him, he had seen so little of her; and as he was coming to give them a disappointment he felt that he would be unwelcome because he had not brought the expected friends with him.

Instead of this, Heidi's eyes gleamed with pure joy, and, full of gratitude and love, she continued to cling to her good friend's arm.

The doctor took the child by the hand with fatherly tenderness. "Come, Heidi," he said in a most friendly way, "now take me to your grandfather and show me where your home is."

But Heidi remained standing where she was and looked wonderingly down the mountain.

"But where are Klara and the grandmamma?" she then asked.

"Well, I shall have to tell you something that will pain you as well as myself," replied the doctor. "You see, Heidi, I have come alone. Klara has been very ill and was not able to take the journey, and so the grandmamma did not come either. But in the spring; when the days are warm and long again, then they will surely come."

Heidi was very much distressed; she could hardly realize that what she had been looking forward to as so ​certain suddenly became impossible. She stood motionless for a time, as if bewildered by the disappointment. The doctor stood silently in front of her, and everything around was still, except the wind blowing through the fir trees high above them. Then it suddenly occurred to Heidi why she had run down the mountain, and that the doctor was there. She looked up at him.

There was something sad in the eyes looking down at her, such as she had never seen before; he had never looked at her so in Frankfurt. It went to Heidi's heart; she could not bear to see any one look sad, and now least of all the good doctor. It certainly must be because Klara and the grandmamma could not come with him. She quickly sought some way to console him and found it.

"Oh, it really won't be long before spring will be here again, and then they will surely come," said Heidi comfortingly. "With us it never is a great while; and then they can stay much longer; Klara will like that much better. Now we will go up to my grandfather."

Hand in hand with her good friend she climbed up to the hut. Heidi was so very anxious to make the doctor happy that she began to assure him again that on the Alm it was such a little while before the long summer days would come again, that it was hardly noticeable; and in this way she became comforted herself and called up to her grandfather quite cheerfully:—

"They did not come, but it won't be long before they will be here, too."

​The doctor was no stranger to the grandfather, the child had told him so much about her friend. The old man held out his hand to his guest and gave him a hearty welcome. Then they both sat down on the bench beside the hut, made a little place for Heidi, and the doctor motioned to her kindly to sit beside him. Then he began to relate how Herr Sesemann had urged him to take the journey, and how he himself had felt that it would be good for him, since he had not been quite strong and well for some time. He then whispered in Heidi's ear that something which had come from Frankfurt with him would soon come up the mountain, and that it would give her much greater pleasure than the old doctor could. Heidi was very eager to know what it might be.

The grandfather urged the doctor to spend the beautiful autumn days on the Alm, or at least to come up every fine day, for he could not invite him to remain up there, because he had no way of making him comfortable at night. But he advised his guest not to go back as far as Ragatz, but to take a room down in Dörfli, in a simple but well-kept inn which he would find there. In that way the doctor would be able to come up the Alm every morning, which the uncle thought would do him good. Moreover, he would be glad to take the gentleman farther up the mountain, whenever he liked. This plan very much pleased the doctor, and he decided to carry it out.

Meanwhile the sun announced that it was midday; the wind had long since ceased, and the fir trees were ​perfectly still. The air was yet mild and lovely for such a height, and felt refreshingly cool around the sunny bench.

The Alm-Uncle rose and went into the hut, but immediately came out again, bringing a table, which he placed in front of the bench.

"There, Heidi, now bring out what we need to eat," he said. "The gentleman will have to make the best of it, for if our cooking is plain our dining-room is all that could be desired."

"I think so, too," replied the doctor as he gazed down into the valley bathed in sunlight; "and I accept your invitation, for everything must taste good up here."

Heidi ran back and forth like a weasel and brought out everything she could find in the cupboard, for she found it an immense pleasure to be able to entertain the doctor. Meanwhile the grandfather prepared the meal and came out with the steaming jug of milk and the shining golden toasted cheese. Then he cut delicious, transparent slices of rosy meat, which he had dried up there in the pure air. The whole year through the doctor had not eaten a single meal which tasted so good as this dinner did.

"Yes, indeed, our Klara must come here," he said; "she would gain new strength, and if she should have such an appetite as I have to-day, she would become plump and robust as she never has been in all her life."

Then some one came climbing up from below with a big package on his back. When he reached the hut, ​he threw his burden down on the ground and drew in long breaths of the fresh mountain air.

"Ah, here is what came with me from Frankfurt," said the doctor, rising; and drawing Heidi after him, he went to the package and began to undo it. After the first heavy wrapping was removed, he said:—

"There, child, now open it yourself and take out your treasures."

Heidi did so, and when everything rolled out together her eyes grew big with astonishment as she gazed at the things. When the doctor stepped back again and lifted the cover of the big box, saying to Heidi, "See what the grandmother has for her coffee," then she screamed with delight:—

"Oh! oh! Now at last the grandmother can have some nice cakes to eat!"

She danced around the box, and was anxious to put everything together immediately, and hasten down to the grandmother's. But her grandfather promised her that toward evening they would go down with the doctor and take the things with them. Then Heidi found the nice bag of tobacco and brought it quickly to her grandfather. It pleased him very much; he immediately filled his pipe with it, and the two men then sat on the bench, talking about all sorts of things, and puffing out great clouds of smoke, while Heidi ran back and forth from one of her treasures to another.

Suddenly she came back to the bench, stood in front of her guest, and as soon as there was a pause in the conversation she said very decidedly:—

​"No, nothing has given me any more pleasure than the old doctor has."

The two men had to laugh a little, and the doctor said he would n't have thought it.

When the sun went down behind the mountains the guest rose to take his way back to Dörfli and to find lodgings there. The grandfather put the box of cakes, the big sausage, and the shawl under his arm; the doctor took Heidi by the hand, and they went down the mountain to goatherd Peter's hut. Here Heidi had to leave them; she was to wait inside with the grandmother until her grandfather should come for her, after accompanying his guest down to Dörfli.

When the doctor, as he said good-night, offered his hand to Heidi, she asked:—

"Would you like to go up to the pasture with the goats to-morrow?"

That was the loveliest spot she knew.

"To be sure, Heidi," he replied, "we will go to-gether."

Then the men continued their way, and Heidi went into the grandmother's hut. First she dragged in the box of cakes with difficulty; then she had to go out again to bring in the sausage, for her grandfather had laid everything down in front of the door; then she had to go out once more to get the big shawl. She brought them all as close to the grandmother as possible, so that she might touch them and know what they were. She laid the shawl in her lap.

"They are all from Frankfurt, from Klara and her ​grandmamma!" she exclaimed. The amazed Brigitte was so affected by her surprise that she stood motionless, watching Heidi as she, with the greatest difficulty, dragged in the heavy articles and spread out everything before her and the highly astonished grandmother.

"Surely, grandmother, you are terribly pleased with the cakes, aren't you? Just see how soft they are!" Heidi exclaimed again and again, and the grandmother replied assuringly:—

"Yes, yes, indeed, Heidi; what good people they are!" Then she would stroke the soft, warm shawl with her hand and say:—

"But this is something splendid for the cold winter! I never dreamed I should ever have anything so magnificent in my life."

Heidi was very much surprised that the grandmother should be more delighted with the gray shawl than with the cakes. Brigitte continued standing before the sausage as it lay on the table, and gazed at it almost with veneration. In all her life she had never seen such a giant sausage, and she was going to possess it, and even cut it; she could not believe it possible. She shook her head and said timidly:—

"We must first ask the uncle what it is meant for."

But Heidi said very decidedly:—

"It is meant to eat, and for nothing else."

Then Peter came stumbling in.

"The Alm-Uncle is coming just behind me; Heidi must" He could go no further. His eyes fell on the table where the sausage lay, and the sight of it so ​overpowered him that he could not speak another word. But Heidi had already noticed who was coming, and hastened to give her hand to the grandmother. The Alm-Uncle never went by the hut now without stepping in to speak to the grandmother, and she was always delighted to hear his step, for he was sure to have an encouraging word for her; but to-day it was late for Heidi, who was out every morning with the sun. Her grandfather said, "The child must have her sleep," and was firm. So he merely called out a good-night through the open door to the grandmother, took Heidi's hand as she ran to meet him, and the two made their way beneath the twinkling stars back to their peaceful hut.