Heidi (1899)/Part 2/Chapter 5

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After this, Peter came down to school at exactly the right time. He brought his dinner with him in his bag, for this was the custom there. When all the children in Dörfli had gone home at noon, the other scholars, who lived at a distance, sat down on the class table, braced their feet firmly against the seats, and spread the luncheon they had brought in their laps, to take their midday meal. They could enjoy themselves until one o'clock, then school began again. When Peter had spent the day in school, he went after it was over to the uncle's, to pay a visit to Heidi.

When he entered the big room, Heidi ran to meet him, for she had been expecting him.

"Peter, I know something," she called to him.

"Say it," he replied.

"You must learn to read," was the news she had for him.

"It's no use," was the reply.

"Oh, Peter! I don't agree with you," said Heidi eagerly; "I think that you can after a little."

"Cannot," remarked Peter.

"Nobody believes such a thing as that, and I don't either," said Heidi very decidedly. "The grandmamma ​in Frankfurt knew that it was n't true, and she told me that I ought not to believe it either."

Peter was dumfounded at this news.

"I will teach you to read; I know how very well," Heidi continued. "You must learn now once for all, and then you must read one or two hymns every day to your grandmother."

"Don't want to," grumbled Peter.

This obstinacy toward something which was good and right and which Heidi had set her heart on made her angry. With flashing eyes she placed herself in front of the boy and said threateningly:—

"Then I will tell you what will happen, if you will never learn anything; your mother has already said twice that you would have to go to Frankfurt to learn something, and I know very well where the boys go to school there; Klara showed me the frightfully big house when we were out driving. There they don't go merely when they are boys, but just the same when they get to be great, big men; I saw that myself; and then you must n't suppose that there is only one teacher there, as we have here, and such a kind one. Whole rows, ever so many together, are always going into the house, and all of them are dressed in black, as if they were going to church, and have such high black hats on their heads"; and Heidi measured the size of the hats from the floor up.

The shivers ran down Peter's back.

"And then you would have to go in among all the masters," continued Heidi eagerly; "and if it came your ​turn, you couldn't read at all and would make mistakes even in the alphabet. Then you would see how the masters would laugh at you, and that is much worse than Tinette, and you ought to know how it is when she laughs at you."

"Then I will," said Peter half petulantly, half whiningly.

In a moment Heidi was pacified.

"Well, that is right, and we will begin at once," she cried in her delight; and pulling Peter in a business-like way to the table, she brought out the articles needed for work.

In Klara's big package there was a little book which had pleased Heidi very much, and it had occurred to her the night before that it would be a good thing to use for teaching Peter. It was an A-B-C book in rhyme.

They both sat down at the table, their heads bent over the little book, and the lesson began.

Peter had to spell the first sentence over and over again, for Heidi insisted on having it done nicely and without hesitation.

Finally she said:—

"You don't know it yet, but I will read it over and over to you; if you know what it means, you can spell it out better"; and Heidi read:—

"I will not go," said Peter angrily.

"Where?" asked Heidi.

​"Before the school board," was the reply.

"Then try to learn the three letters, and you won't have to go," explained Heidi.

Then Peter began again and repeated the three letters perseveringly until Heidi said:—

"Now you know these three."

But as she noticed what an effect the words had made on Peter, she wanted to prepare a little for the following lessons.

"Wait,—I will read you the other sentences," she continued; "then you will see all that is coming." And she began to read very clearly and distinctly:—

Here Heidi stopped, for Peter was as still as a mouse, and she had to see what he was doing. All these threats and mysterious horrors had so overcome him that he could not move a muscle, and was staring at Heidi in terror.

This immediately touched Heidi's tender heart, and she said comfortingly:—

​"You mustn't be frightened, Peter; just come to me every afternoon, and if you learn as well as you have to-day, you will know all the letters after a while, and then nothing will happen to you. But you must come every day, and not the way you go to school. If it snows it won't do you any harm."

Peter promised to do so, for fear had made him quite docile and obedient. Then he started home.

Peter followed Heidi's orders strictly, and every afternoon studied the other letters eagerly and learned the rhymes by heart.

The grandfather often sat in the room and listened to the exercise, while he smoked his pipe contentedly, and every little while the corners of his mouth twitched, as if he could hardly keep from laughing.

After the great struggle Peter was usually invited to remain and take supper with them; and this at once richly rewarded him for the anguish that day's verse had caused him to endure.

Thus the winter days passed away. Peter was regu. lar and really made progress with his letters.

But he had to wrestle every day with the verses.

They had gone as far as U. When Heidi read the couplet,—

Peter growled:—

"Yes, see if I will!"

But he learned them thoroughly, as if he was under the impression that some one might take him secretly ​by the throat and carry him where he would not care to go.

On the following afternoon Heidi read:—

Then Peter looked around and said scornfully:—

"There is n't any."

"Yes, there is; don't you know what grandfather has in the chest?" asked Heidi. "A stick as big around. as my arm, and when he takes it out he can say:—

"'Behold the stick, and it will trouble you.'"

Peter knew the big hazel stick. He bent over his W at once and tried to grasp it.

The next day it read:—

Then Peter looked inquiringly toward the cupboard where the bread and cheese were kept, and said snappishly:—

"I have never said that I should forget X."

"That is right, if you don't forget it; then we can learn one letter more," suggested Heidi; "and to-morrow you will have only one left."

Peter was not agreed, but Heidi read:—

Then there rose before Peter's eyes all the masters in Frankfurt with their tall, black hats on their heads and ​scorn and ridicule in their faces. He immediately attacked the letter Y, and did not let it go again until he knew it so well that he could close his eyes and still see how it looked.

On the next day Peter was feeling rather proud when he came to Heidi, for there was only one letter left for him to study, and when Heidi read the verse to him,

he said sneeringly:—

"Yes, when nobody knows where they are!"

"Indeed, Peter, my grandfather knows," asserted Heidi; "just wait and I will ask him right away where they are; he is over at the pastor's house"; and Heidi jumped up and was going out at the door.

"Wait!" screamed Peter in great alarm, for he already saw in his imagination the Alm-Uncle coming in with the pastor, and the two seizing him at once and sending him off to the Hottentots, for he really did not know the name of Z. His troubled cry made Heidi stand still.

"What is the matter with you?" she asked in surprise. ​"Nothing! Come back! I will learn it," stammered Peter. But Heidi wanted to know where the Hottentots were, and she was going to ask her grandfather any way. But Peter screamed so desperately after her that she gave it up and came back. He had to do something to make up for it, however. Not only did Heidi make him repeat the letter Z so many times that it remained fast in his memory forever, but she went on at once to syllables, and Peter learned so much that afternoon that he made a great advance.

Thus it went on day after day.

The crust had become soft again, and every day there was a fresh fall of snow, so that for three long weeks together Heidi could not go up to see the grandmother. All the more eager was she, in her work with Peter, to have him able to read the hymns. One evening Peter came home from Heidi's and ran into the room, saying:—

"I can do it!"

"What can you do, Peterli?" asked his mother, full of hope.

"Reading," he answered.

"Is it possible! Did you hear, grandmother exclaimed Brigitte.

The grandmother had heard it and also wondered how it had happened.

"Now I must read a hymn, for Heidi said so," Peter went on to say. His mother at once took down the book, and the grandmother was delighted, it was so long since she had heard any good words. Peter sat ​down at the table and began to read. His mother sat down beside him to listen; after each verse she said in amazement:—

"Who could have thought it?"

His grandmother followed one verse after another attentively, but said nothing to it.

The day after this occurrence it happened that Peter's class had a reading lesson. When Peter's turn came the teacher said:—

"Peter, must I pass by you again, as usual, or will you once more I will not say read,—I will say try to stammer through a line?"

Peter began and read three lines one after another without stopping.

The teacher laid his book aside. He looked at Peter in dumb astonishment, as if he had never seen anything like it before. At last he said:—

"Peter, a miracle has happened to you! As long as I have worked over you with inexpressible patience you have never been able to grasp even the alphabet. Now that I have, although unwillingly, given up working over you as a useless task, it happens that you come out and have learned, not only the alphabet, but also to read properly, as well as quite clearly. Who has been able to work such a miracle in our time, Peter?"

"Heidi," was the reply.

In the greatest surprise the teacher looked toward Heidi, who was sitting quite innocently in her seat, so that there was nothing extraordinary in her appearance. He continued:—

​"I have noticed a change in you in many ways, Peter. While you used to be often absent from school the whole week,—yes, several weeks together,—lately you have not stayed away a day. Who can have caused such a change for the better in you?"

"The uncle," was the reply.

With increasing astonishment the teacher looked from Peter to Heidi, and from her back again to Peter.

"We will try it once more," he then said cautiously; and Peter had to prove his knowledge with three lines more. It was a fact, he had learned to read.

As soon as school was over, the teacher hastened to the pastor's house to tell him what had happened, and what a good influence the uncle and Heidi were having in the parish.

Every evening now Peter read a hymn at home. So far he obeyed Heidi, but no farther, for he never undertook a second one; nor did the grandmother ever ask him to do so.

His mother Brigitte wondered every day that Peter had succeeded in learning to read, and many an evening when the reading was over and the reader lay in his bed, she would say again to the grandmother:—

"We can't be pleased enough that Peterli has learned to read so beautifully; now there's no knowing what he may become." Then the grandmother would answer:—

"Yes, it is a good thing for him that he has learned something; but I shall be heartily glad if the dear Lord sends the spring soon, so that Heidi can come up ​again. It is as if she read entirely different hymns. Something is so often left out in the verses when Peter reads them, and I have to try to remember it, and then I can't follow the thought, and it does n't impress my heart as it does when Heidi reads the words."

This happened because Peter arranged the reading a little so that it would not be too difficult for him. If a word came that was too long or looked hard, he preferred to leave it out, for he thought it would be all the same to the grandmother whether there were three or four words in a line.

So it came about that there were hardly any nouns left in the hymns Peter read.