Johanna Spyri - Heidi

During the night Uncle Alp went up to the loft at least ten times to make sure she was all right, and to see that the round hole in the wall was still stopped with hay to prevent the moonlight shining on her face. But Heidi did not stir. She slept soundly all night long, satisfied through and through. She was home again. She had seen the sun setting on the mountains. She had heard the wind whistling through the fir trees.

Heidi stood under the swaying trees, waiting for her grandfather to go down the mountain with her. He was going to fetch her trunk from Dörfli while she visited Grannie. She was eager to get there, to hear how she had enjoyed the rolls but, listening to the familiar rustling of the trees with her eyes resting on the distant green pastures, she did not grow impatient.

Presently he came out of the hut and took a last look round. It was Saturday, the day when he always cleaned the whole place, inside and out, and tidied up generally. He had worked hard all the morning so that he would be free to go with Heidi in the afternoon, and now everything looked spick and span so he could leave it with a clear conscience. ‘Now we can go,’ he said.

They parted company outside the little house where Peter lived, and Heidi went in there. Grannie heard her step at once, and called affectionately, ‘Is that you, child?’ She took Heidi’s hand and held it tightly as if she was afraid of losing her again.

‘How did you like the rolls?’ asked Heidi at once.

‘Oh, they taste good! I feel better already.’

‘Grannie’s so anxious to make them last that she would only eat one last night and another this morning,’ put in Bridget. ‘If she has one every day for the next ten days, I’m sure she’ll get back her strength.’

Heidi listened thoughtfully and an idea came to her. ‘I know what I’ll do, Grannie,’ she cried. ‘I’ll write to Clara. I’m sure she’ll send me more rolls. I’d saved lots and lots for you, but they were all thrown away, and then Clara promised she’d give me as many as I wanted. She’ll keep her word, I know.’

‘That’s a kind thought,’ said Bridget, ‘but I’m afraid they’d be quite stale and hard by the time they got here. If I had a spare copper or two I’d get some from the baker in Dörfli, but it’s as much as I can do to buy the black bread.’

A beaming smile spread over Heidi’s face. ‘But I’ve got lots of money, Grannie,’ she exclaimed, ‘and now I know what I can do with it. You shall have a fresh roll every day and two on Sundays, and Peter can bring them up with him from the village.’

‘No, no,’ protested Grannie, ‘you mustn’t spend your money on me. You give it to Grandfather, and he’ll tell you what to do with it.’

Heidi paid no attention but pranced round the room, singing, ‘Now Grannie can have a fresh roll every day and will soon be strong again! And oh, Grannie, when you’re quite well, surely you’ll be able to see too. It’s probably only because you’re so weak that you can’t see.’

Grannie just smiled. She would not spoil the child’s happiness. As she danced around, Heidi caught sight of Grannie’s old hymn‐book, and that gave her another idea. ‘I can read now, Grannie,’ she said. ‘Would you like me to read you something out of your old book?’

‘Oh, yes,’ exclaimed Grannie, delighted. ‘Can you really read?’

Heidi climbed on a stool and took down the book, which had lain on the shelf so long that it was thick with dust. She wiped it clean and took the stool close beside the old woman. ‘What shall I read?’ she asked.

‘What you like, child,’ Grannie said, pushing her spinning‐wheel to one side and waiting eagerly for her to begin.

Heidi turned the pages, reading a line here and a line there. ‘Here’s one about the sun,’ she said at last. ‘I’ll read that.’ And she began with great enthusiasm.

Grannie sat through it with her hands folded. Heidi had never seen her look so happy, though tears were running down her cheeks. And at the end she said, ‘Read it again, Heidi. Please read it again.’

Heidi was delighted to do so for she liked the hymn very much herself.

‘Oh, that’s done me so much good,’ Grannie sighed at last. ‘It makes my old heart rejoice.’

Heidi had never seen such a peaceful expression before on Grannie’s careworn face. It looked as though she had indeed found ‘true joy and peace of mind’.

Then there came a knock on the window and Heidi saw her grandfather outside, beckoning to her. She said goodbye and promised to come again the next day. ‘I may go to the pasture with Peter and the goats in the morning,’ she added, ‘but I’ll be here in the afternoon.’ It had been pleasant to be able to give so much happiness, and Heidi wanted to do that even more than running on the mountain among the flowers with the goats.

As she was going Bridget brought out the dress and hat which Heidi had taken off and left behind the day before. Now she thought she might as well take the dress, for she was sure it would not make any difference to Grandfather, but the hat she absolutely refused. ‘You keep that,’ she told Bridget. ‘I’ll never wear it again.’

Heidi had so much to tell her grandfather that she began at once. ‘And I’d like to buy rolls for Grannie with my money,’ she told him. ‘She doesn’t want me to, but it’ll be all right, won’t it? Peter can get them in Dörfli, if I give him a penny every day, and two on Sunday.’

‘What about your bed, Heidi? It would be nice for you to have a proper one, and there would still be enough money to buy the rolls.’

‘But I sleep much better on my hay mattress than I did in that great big bed in Frankfurt. Please, please let me spend the money on rolls.’

‘Well,’ he agreed at last, ‘the money is yours. Do what you like with it. There’ll be enough to buy Grannie rolls for many a long year.’

‘Good, good! She needn’t ever eat the hard black bread again. Oh, we are having good times, Grandfather, aren’t we?’ and she skipped gaily along beside him. Then all at once she grew serious and said, ‘If God had let me come back to you at once, like I asked in my prayers, none of this would have happened. I should have brought Grannie a few rolls I had saved, but they would soon have been gone, and I wouldn’t have been able to read. God knew what was best, just as Clara’s Grandmamma said He did, and see how perfectly He arranged everything. I’ll always say my prayers after this, as Grandmamma told me to, and if God doesn’t answer them at once I shall know it’s because He’s planning something better for me, just as He did in Frankfurt. We’ll pray every day, won’t we Grandfather, and we’ll never forget God again, and He won’t forget us.’

‘And when someone does forget?’ he said softly.

‘That’s very bad,’ Heidi told him earnestly, ‘because then God lets him go his own way and then, when everything has gone wrong, no one will feel sorry for him. They’ll only say, “You didn’t bother about God, and now God has left you to yourself.”’

‘That’s true, Heidi. How did you find out?’

‘Grandmamma explained it all to me.’

The old man walked on in silence. After a while he said, half to himself, ‘If God forsakes a man, that’s final. There’s no going back then.’