Johanna Spyri - Heidi

‘Don’t you ever do such a thing again,’ said Miss Rotten‐meier, pointing to the floor. ‘You must sit still during lessons and pay attention. If you don’t, I shall have to tie you to your chair. Is that understood?’

‘Yes. I will sit still,’ replied Heidi, accepting this as another rule that she must obey.

Sebastian and Tinette were sent for to clear up the mess and Mr Usher bowed and took his leave, saying there would be no more lessons. Certainly no one had been bored that day!

Clara always had to rest in the afternoons and Miss Rottenmeier told Heidi she could do as she pleased during that time. So after dinner, when the little invalid had settled down to sleep and the housekeeper had gone to her room, Heidi felt the moment had come to carry out something she had been planning. But she needed help, so she waited in the passage outside the dining‐room for Sebastian who presently came upstairs from the kitchen with a big tray of silver to be put away in the dining‐room cupboard. She stepped forward as he reached the last stair and said, ‘You, there,’ for she was uncertain how to address him after what Miss Rottenmeier had told her.

‘What do you want, Miss?’ he asked, rather crossly.

‘I only want to ask you something. It’s nothing naughty like this morning,’ she added, for he seemed in rather a bad mood and she thought that might be because of the ink on the carpet.

‘All right,’ he said more pleasantly, ‘what is it, Miss?’

‘My name’s not Miss, it’s Heidi.’

‘Miss Rottenmeier told us to call you that,’ he replied.

‘Oh, well, I suppose you must then,’ she said in a small voice. She was quite aware that that lady’s orders had to be obeyed. ‘And in that case, I have three names,’ she added with a sigh.

‘What is it you want to ask, Miss?’ asked Sebastian, going into the dining‐room with his tray. Heidi followed.

‘Can you open a window, Sebastian?’

‘Of course,’ he said and threw open the big casement. Heidi was too small to see out. Her chin only came up to the sill, but he brought her a high wooden stool and said, ‘If you climb on that, Miss, you’ll be able to see what’s down below.’ She got up on it, but after a quick glance, turned back with a very disappointed face.

‘There’s nothing but stony streets,’ she said sadly. ‘What should I see on the other side of the house, Sebastian?’

‘Nothing different.’

She could not understand what living in a town meant, nor that the train had carried her so far away from the mountains and pastures.

‘Then where can I go to see over the whole valley?’ ‘You’d have to go somewhere high up, a church tower like that one over there with the gold ball on top,’ he said, pointing. ‘You’d see ever so far from there.’

Heidi climbed down from the stool and ran downstairs and out of the front door. But she did not find the tower just across the road as it had seemed from the window. She ran right down the street, but couldn’t see it anywhere. She turned into a side street and walked on and on. She passed a lot of people, but they all seemed in such a hurry that she did not like to stop one of them to ask the way. Then she saw a boy standing at a corner, with a small hurdy-gurdy on his back and a tortoise in his arms. She went up to him and asked:

‘Where’s the tower with the gold ball on top?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘Who can I ask then?’

‘Don’t know.’

‘Do you know any church with a high tower?’

‘Yes, one.’

‘Well, come and show me.’

‘What will you give me, if I do?’ asked the boy, holding out his hand.

She felt in her pocket and brought out a little card with a wreath of red roses painted on it which Clara had given her that morning. She looked at it for a moment, rather regretfully, but decided it was worth sacrificing to see the view over the valley. ‘There, would you like this?’ she asked, holding it out to him. He shook his head.

‘What do you want then?’ she asked, glad to put her treasure back in the pocket.

‘Money.’

‘I haven’t got any money,’ said Heidi, ‘but Clara has and I expect she’ll give me some for you. How much do you want?’

‘Two pennies.’

‘All right. Now let’s go.’

They went off together down a long street. ‘What’s that on your back?’ asked Heidi.

‘It’s an organ. When I turn the handle, music comes out. Here we are,’ he added, for they had reached an old church which had a high tower. The doors were fast shut, however.

‘How can I get in?’ asked Heidi.

‘Don’t know.’

Then she caught sight of a bell in the wall. ‘Do you think I can ring, like they do for Sebastian?’ she asked.

‘Don’t know,’ he said again.

She went up to the wall and pulled with all her might at the bell.

‘Wait for me, if I go up, because I don’t know the way home, and you will have to show me.’

‘What will you give me if I do?’

‘What do you want?’

‘Another twopence.’

Then they heard the old lock being turned from within, the door opened with a creak, and an old man peered out. He looked very annoyed when he saw the children. ‘What do you mean by bringing me all this way down?’ he demanded. ‘Can’t you read what it says under the bell: “For those who wish to climb the tower”?’

The boy jerked his thumb at Heidi, but said nothing.

‘I do want to climb the tower,’ she said.

‘You? What for? Did someone send you?’ asked the old keeper.

‘No. I want to see what I can see from the top.’ ‘Be off with you,’ he told her, ‘and don’t try your tricks on me again or it’ll be the worse for you,’ and he began to shut the door. But Heidi caught hold of his coat.

‘Let me go up just this once,’ she pleaded.

He looked down at her, and her eagerness softened him, so that he took her by the hand and said grumblingly, ‘Oh well, if it means so much to you, come along.’

The boy made no move to go too, but sat down on the stone doorstep, waiting for her as she had asked him to. The door shut, and she and the old man climbed up and up, the stairs getting narrower, the higher they went. At last they reached the top and the keeper held her up to an open window. ‘Now you have a good look round,’ he said. But still there was nothing to be seen but a sea of roofs, chimneys, and towers, and after a minute she turned back to him and said, looking very crestfallen, ‘It isn’t a bit what I expected.’

‘I thought as much! What does a little thing like you know about views! Come along now and don’t ring any more tower bells.’

He set her on the ground and she followed him down. When they came to the landing at the bottom of the narrowest flight of stairs she noticed a door on the left, which led to the keeper’s room. There, in a corner beside it, a fat grey cat sat beside a big basket, and spat as Heidi approached, to warn her that this was the home of her family of kittens and that she would not allow anyone to meddle with them. Heidi stood and stared, for she had never seen such a huge cat before. There were such quantities of mice in the tower that it could catch half a dozen a day without any difficulty, and had grown sleek and fat on them.

‘Come and look at the kittens,’ said the keeper. ‘The mother won’t touch you if I’m with you.’ Heidi went up to the basket.

‘Oh what darlings! Aren’t they sweet?’ she exclaimed with delight, as she watched seven or eight little kittens tumbling and scrambling over one another.