Heidi (1899)/Part 2/Chapter 7

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The sun was just coming up behind the crags and casting its golden beams over the hut and down across the valley. The Alm-Uncle had been silently and attentively watching, as he did every morning, how all around on the heights and in the valley the light mists were lifting, and the landscape appeared out of the twilight shadows and awoke to the new day.

Brighter and brighter grew the light morning clouds until the sun came out in all its glory, and rocks and woods and hilltops were bathed in the golden light.

Then the uncle went back into his hut and climbed softly up the little ladder. Klara had just awakened, and was gazing in the greatest amazement at the bright sunbeams, which came in through the round window. and glanced and danced on her bed. She did not know what she was looking at or where she was. Then she looked at Heidi, sleeping beside her, and then the grandfather's friendly voice sounded, asking:—

"Did you sleep well? Are you tired?"

Klara assured him that she was not tired, and that after she was once asleep she did not wake up again all night. This pleased the grandfather, and he immediately set to work and cared for Klara as well and under​standingly as if it had always been his profession to care for sick children and make them comfortable.

By this time Heidi had opened her eyes and was surprised to see that her grandfather had already finished Klara's toilet and was carrying her away in his arms. She felt that she must be with them: She dressed as quick as lightning; then went down the ladder and was out at the door and stood looking in the greatest surprise at what her grandfather had been doing further. The evening before, when the children had gone to bed in the loft, he had planned how to bring the wide rolling chair under cover. The door of the hut was much too small to allow it to enter. Then a thought came to him. Behind the shop he loosened two large boards and thus formed a wide opening. The chair was pushed in, and then the planks were put back in their places, though they were not fastened.

Heidi came along just as her grandfather was putting Klara in her chair, for he had taken away the boards and was coming out of the shop with her into the morning sunshine. He left the chair standing in a safe place and went to the goat-shed. Heidi ran to Klara's side.

The cool morning breeze blew around the children's faces, and the spicy fragrance from the fir trees came down with every new gust of wind. Klara drew in deep breaths and leaned back in her chair with a feeling of health such as she had never known before.

Never in her life had she breathed in the fresh morning air outdoors under the open sky, and now the pure mountain breeze blew around her so cool and refresh​ing that every breath was a pleasure. And then there was the bright, sweet sunshine, which was not at all hot up there, and lay so lovely and warm on her hands and on the dry, grassy earth at her feet. Klara had never imagined that it could be like this on the mountain.

"Oh, Heidi, if only I could always, always stay up here with you!" she said, turning with delight first one way and then another in her chair, to take in the air and sunshine from every side.

"Now you see that is just as I told you," replied Heidi, much pleased: "that here at my grandfather's on the Alm is the loveliest spot in the whole world."

Just then the grandfather came out of the shed to the children. He brought two bowls full of foaming, snow-white milk, and handed one to Klara and the other to Heidi.

"This will do the little daughter good," he said, nodding to Klara; "it is from Schwänli and will make you strong. To your good health! Drink away!"

Klara had never tasted goat's milk, so she had to smell of it a little first, to see what it was like. But when she saw how eagerly Heidi drank down her milk without stopping once,—it tasted so wonderfully good to her,—then Klara began and drank and drank, and really it was as sweet and nourishing as if there were sugar and cinnamon in it, and Klara drank until there was nothing left in the bowl.

"To-morrow we will take two," said the grandfather, who was well satisfied to see how Klara followed Heidi's example.

​Peter now appeared with his flock, and while Heidi was surrounded by the goats, giving their morning greeting on every hand, the uncle took Peter aside

that he might hear what he had to say to him, for the goats kept up a great bleating, each one trying to outdo the other in expressing its delight and affection, as soon as Heidi was with them.

​"Now listen and mind," said the uncle. "From to-day on let Schwänli do as she likes. She knows where the best feed is; so if she wants to go up, follow her. It will be good for the others too; and if she wants to go higher than you usually go with her, follow on and don't keep her back—do you hear? If you have to climb a little, it won't do any harm; go wherever she likes, for in this respect she has more sense than you, and she must have the very best feed, so that she will give splendid milk. Why are you looking over there as if you would like to swallow somebody? No one is in your way. There, now, go on, and remember what I have told you!"

Peter was accustomed to follow the uncle's orders. He immediately started along; but it was plain to be seen that something disturbed him, for he kept turning his head and rolling his eyes. The goats followed and pushed Heidi along with them for a little distance. Peter approved of this.

"You must come too," he called out threateningly; "you must come too, if I have to go after Schwänli."

"No, I cannot," Heidi called back; "and I cannot come with you for a long, long time, as long as Klara is with us. But grandfather has promised that some day we may come up together."

With these words Heidi had torn herself away from the goats and now ran back to Klara. Then Peter shook both fists so threateningly toward the wheel chair that the goats sprang to one side; but he at once sprang after them and, without stopping, went on up a ​long distance until he was out of sight, for he thought the uncle might have seen him, and he preferred not to know what sort of an impression his gestures made on the uncle.

Klara and Heidi had planned so much for that day that they did not know where to begin. Heidi proposed to write a letter to the grandmamma, for the good lady for her part was not perfectly sure that it would please Klara up there for any length of time, or indeed be good for her health; so she had made the children promise to write her a letter every day, and to tell her everything that happened. In this way the grandmamma would know when she was needed on the Alm, and until then could stay quietly where she was.

"Must we go into the house to write?" asked Klara, who was willing to send a report to her grandmamma, but it was so pleasant outdoors that she did not want to go in.

Heidi knew how to manage. In a twinkling she ran into the hut and came back laden with all her school materials and a three-legged stool. She laid her reader and writing book in Klara's lap, so that she could write on them, and seated herself on the little stool by the bench, and then they began to tell the grandmamma what had happened. But after every sentence she wrote Klara had to lay her pencil down and look around her. It was quite too lovely! The wind was no longer so cool as it had been; it hovered around their faces, gently fanning them, and whispered softly up in the fir trees. Merry little insects danced and hummed in the ​clear air, and a great stillness lay over all the sunny landscape. The lofty, rocky peaks looked down so big and still, and the whole wide valley below lay wrapt in quiet peacefulness. Only now and then the merry shouts of some shepherd boy sounded through the air, and the echo gave back the tones softly from the crags.

The morning passed, the children knew not how, and the grandfather came with the steaming bowls, for he said they must stay outdoors with the little daughter as long as there was a ray of light in the sky. So the dinner, as on the previous day, was placed before the hut and taken with enjoyment. Then Heidi rolled Klara in her chair out under the fir trees, for the children had decided that they would spend the afternoon sitting in the lovely shade and tell each other what had happened since Heidi left Frankfurt. Although everything had gone on in the usual way, still Klara had all sorts of things to tell about the people whom Heidi knew so well, living in the Sesemann house.

So the children sat together under the old fir trees, and the more eagerly they talked the louder whistled the birds up in the branches, for the chatting below pleased them and they were anxious to take part in it. Thus the time passed and before they knew it evening had come, and the army of goats came rushing down, their leader behind them, with wrinkled brow and anger in his manner.

Good-night, Peter!" Heidi called out to him, when she saw that he had no idea of stopping.

"Good-night, Peter!" called out Klara pleasantly.

​He gave no reply and, angrily snorting, drove on the goats.

When Klara saw the grandfather lead pretty Schwänli to the stall to be milked, she was all at once seized with such a longing for the spicy milk that she could hardly wait until he came out with it. She was surprised at herself.

"It is very strange, Heidi," she said; "as long as I can remember, I have eaten only because I had to, and everything I took tasted like cod-liver oil, and I have thought a thousand times: If only I never had to eat!' and now I can hardly wait until your grandfather comes with the milk."

"Yes, I know what that is," replied Heidi quite understandingly, for she thought of the day in Frankfurt when everything stuck in her throat and would not go down. But Klara could not see how it was. In all her life long she had never eaten outdoors in the fresh air, as she had done to-day, and never in this high, invigorating mountain air.

When the grandfather came with his little bowls, Klara seized hers quickly, thanking him for it, drank it eagerly, and this time finished before Heidi.

"May I have a little more?" she asked, holding out her bowl to the grandfather.

He nodded, much pleased, took Heidi's bowl also, and went back to the hut. When he came out again, he brought with each bowl a thick cover, made of different material from what covers are usually made.

In the afternoon the grandfather had taken a walk ​to the green Maiensäss to the cow-keeper's hut where they made sweet, bright, yellow butter. He had brought home from there a lovely round ball. Now he had taken two nice slices of bread and spread them thick with the sweet butter. These the children were now going to have for their supper. Both immediately took such deep bites of the appetizing slices that the grandfather stood still to see them continue, for it pleased him.

Later, when Klara was again gazing at the sparkling stars from her bed, she followed Heidi's example; her eyes closed immediately, and such a sound, healthful sleep came over her as she had never known before.

The following day passed in the same delightful way, and also the next, and then came a great surprise for the children. Two strong porters came climbing up the mountain, each one carrying on his back a high bed, all arranged in the bedstead, both covered exactly alike with a white coverlet, clean and brand-new. The men also brought a letter from the grandmamma. It said that these beds were for Klara and Heidi, that the hay beds were to be taken away, and that from this time on Heidi must sleep in a regular bed. In the winter one of them must be sent down to Dörfli, but the other was to remain up there, so that Klara would always find it, if she came back. Then the grand-mamma praised the children on account of their long letters and urged them to continue writing every day, so that she might always know everything about them as if, well—as if she were with them.

​The grandfather went into the hut, threw the contents of Heidi's bed on the big heap of hay, and laid away the covers. Then he came back to help the men carry the two beds up into the loft. He pushed them close together so that the view through the window might be the same from both pillows, for he knew what delight the children took in the morning and evening light coming in there.

Meanwhile the grandmamma stayed down in Ragatz and was highly delighted with the excellent reports which reached her every day from the Alm.

Klara became more and more charmed with her new life, and she could not say enough about the grandfather's kindness and thoughtful care of her, and how merry and amusing Heidi was,—much more so than in Frankfurt,—and how every morning her first thought when she awoke was:—

"Oh, praise the Lord; I am still on the Alm!"

This remarkably delightful news was a fresh joy to the grandmamma every day. She found also that under the circumstances she could defer her visit to the Alm a little longer, which she was not sorry for, since the ride up the steep mountain and down again was rather difficult for her.

The grandfather must have felt a remarkable interest in his little charge, for not a day passed when he did not think of something new to strengthen her. Every afternoon now he took a walk up among the rocks, higher and higher, and every time he brought back a little bundle, which scented the air for a long distance ​like spicy pinks and thyme, and attracted the goats at evening, so that they all began to bleat and leap and tried to push all together into the shed where the plants lay, for they knew the odor well. But the uncle had made the door fast, because he had not climbed high up on the rocks after the rare plants, that the whole crowd of goats might get a good meal without any trouble. The herbs were all intended for Schwänli, that she might give still richer milk. It was plain to see how this extraordinary care affected her, for she tossed her head in the air more and more vigorously, and, besides, her eyes flashed fire.

It was now the third week since Klara had come up on the mountain. For several days when the grandfather had brought her down in the morning to place her in her chair, he had said:—

"Will the little daughter not try just once to stand on the ground a moment?"

Klara had tried to do as he wished, but had always said immediately: "Oh, it hurts me so!" and had clung fast to him; but each day he had let her try a little longer.

Such a beautiful summer had not been seen on the Alm for many years. Every day the beaming sun shone in a cloudless sky and all the little flowers opened their chalices wide and gleamed and sent their fragrance up to it, and at evening it threw its purple and rosy light over the rocky peaks and across the snow fields and then disappeared in a blazing sea of gold.

Heidi told her friend Klara about it all again and ​again, for it could only be seen properly up in the pasture, and she was especially enthusiastic about the place up on the slope where there were great quantities of shining, golden wild roses, and so many bluebells that one would think the grass was blue, and near by great bushes full of little brown flowers which smell so lovely that one has to sit down on the ground among them and never wants to leave them. Sitting under the fir trees, Heidi had just been telling again about the flowers up there and the sunset and the fiery rocks, and then such a longing seized her to go up there again that she suddenly jumped up and ran to her grandfather, who was sitting in his shop carving.

"Oh, grandfather," she called out before she was at all near him, "will you come with us up to the pasture to-morrow? It is so lovely up there now!"

"I will agree to it," said the grandfather in assent; "but the little daughter must also do me a favor: she must try again hard this evening to stand."

Heidi came back, shouting for joy, with her news to Klara; and Klara promised to try to stand on her feet as many times as the grandfather wished, for she was immensely delighted to take this journey up to the beautiful goat pasture. Heidi was so full of joy that she called out to Peter as soon as she saw him coming down that evening:—

"Peter! Peter! we are coming up with you to-morrow, to stay all day."

In reply Peter growled like an angry bear and struck out furiously at the innocent Distelfinck, trotting along ​beside him. But the alert Distelfinck had noticed the movement at the right time. He made a leap high over Schneehöpli and the blow whizzed in the air.

Klara and Heidi went up to their two beautiful beds with great expectations, and they were so full of their plans for the next day that they decided to stay awake all night and to talk about them until they could get up again. But scarcely had they lain down on their soft pillows when their talk suddenly ceased and Klara saw before her in a dream a great big field, which looked as blue as the sky, it was so thickly studded with bright bluebells; and Heidi heard the robber-bird up in the air screaming down: "Come! come! come!"