Johanna Spyri - Heidi

Heidi took hold of the chair handle and, pushing with all her might, managed to get it as far as the firs. Clara had never in her life seen anything like these tall old trees, with their straight trunks, and long thick branches sweeping almost to the ground. Even Grandmamma, who had followed them, had never seen such trees before. She stood admiring them, thinking how long they must have stood there looking down on the valley below, while generation after generation of men came and went, were born and died, and they stood fast, for ever stretching upwards to the sky.

Heidi wheeled Clara on to the goat‐stall and opened the door wide so that she could have a good look inside, though as the goats were not at home, there was nothing particular to see.

‘Oh Grandmamma,’ said Clara regretfully, ‘I wish I could stay till Daisy and Dusky get back with Peter, and the rest of the goats.’

‘Let’s enjoy the beautiful things we can see, my dear, and not think about those we cannot,’ said Mrs Sesemann who was following the chair in its progress.

‘Just look at those clumps of pretty red flowers and all the harebells,’ exclaimed Clara. ‘I wish I could pick some.’

That was enough for Heidi who immediately dashed off and came back with a beautiful bunch, which she laid on Clara’s lap. ‘Wait till you see the flowers up on the pasture, though,’ she said. ‘There the meadows are absolutely covered with them. There’s centaury, and many, many more hare‐bells than here and thousands of yellow rock‐roses. Then there are things with big leaves which Grandfather calls Bright Eyes, and little brown flowers with round heads which smell delicious. I could stay there for hours — it’s all so lovely!’ Heidi’s eyes danced as she tried to make Clara see it all, and soon Clara caught her excitement too.

‘Do you think I could ever get up as high as that, Grandmamma?’ she asked anxiously. ‘If only I could walk and clamber about with you, Heidi.’

‘I’ll push you up,’ promised Heidi, ‘I’m sure I could, for the chair goes very easily,’ and as if to show how easily, she went running off with it at such a rate that they might have gone right over the edge if Uncle Alp hadn’t caught the handle in the nick of time.

During the tour of inspection, he had been fetching out the table and chairs, and had laid everything ready for their meal. Milk and cheese were warming on the stove, and before long the company sat down to dinner. Mrs Sesemann was delighted with this unusual ‘dining‐room’, with its views right down the valley and away, over the peaks, to the blue sky beyond. A gentle breeze fanned them as they sat at table, and rustled in the trees, making agreeable music.

‘I’ve never enjoyed anything so much,’ declared Grand‐mamma, ‘it’s quite magnificent,’ and then ‘What’s this I see? A second piece of toasted cheese for Clara?’

‘Oh, it is so good, Grandmamma. Better than anything they give me at Ragaz,’ said Clara, and she took another bite with obvious enjoyment.

‘Just keep on like that,’ said Uncle Alp. ‘It’s our mountain air — it makes up for any deficiencies in the cooking.’

Mrs Sesemann and Uncle Alp got on famously together, and found they had many ideas in common. They might have been friends for years, and time passed quickly, but at last she looked towards the west and said, ‘We shall have to go very soon, Clara. The sun’s going down, and the men will be back any moment with the horse and your chair.’

Clara’s face fell at that. ‘Can’t we stay?’ she implored. ‘Another hour, or two? I haven’t even been inside the hut yet, or seen Heidi’s bed. Oh, I wish there were another ten hours of this day!’

‘I am afraid that’s not possible,’ said her grandmother. But she too wanted to see inside the hut, so they all got up and Uncle Alp wheeled Clara over to the doorway. The chair was too wide to go through it, but he picked her up and carried her. Mrs Sesemann looked at everything with great interest, and was delighted with the orderliness and the cunning arrangements of the place.

‘And is your bed up here, Heidi?’ she asked, beginning without more ado to mount the ladder to the hayloft. ‘Oh, how sweet it smells — a fine healthy place to sleep.’ She peeped through the hole in the wall which was Heidi’s window. Then Uncle Alp came up the ladder with Clara in his arms and Heidi hopped up after them, and they all crowded together, admiring the bed.

‘Oh Heidi, what a lovely place to sleep!’ cried Clara in delight. ‘Fancy being able to lie in bed and look right out into the sky and hear the fir trees, and smell such nice scents. I’ve never imagined such a heavenly bedroom.’

Uncle Alp glanced then at Mrs Sesemann. ‘I’ve been thinking,’ he began, ‘and I hope you’ll not object to the suggestion. Suppose you leave your little girl here for a time. I’m sure she’d soon get stronger. You brought so many rugs and wraps with you that we could easily make her a comfortable bed up here, and I promise to look after her and give her all the attention she needs. You need not worry about that.’

Clara and Heidi were overjoyed at his words, and Grandmamma turned a beaming smile on him.

‘What a kind fellow you are,’ she said. ‘You must have read what was in my own mind. I was actually thinking how much good it would do Clara to stay here — but I feared it would be too much to ask of you. Then you come out with an offer which solves the whole problem, and as though it were the easiest thing in the world. I can’t thank you enough.’ And she shook him warmly by the hand.

Immediately he set to work. First he carried Clara back to her chair outside the hut, with Heidi skipping round them in a great state of excitement. Then he took up an armful of the rugs saying, ‘What a good thing you came up equipped for a winter campaign! We shall make good use of these.’

‘Foresight is a virtue and averts many a misfortune,’ said Mrs Sesemann cheerfully. ‘For a journey to the mountains we should have been foolish not to prepare for storms. We’ve been lucky enough to escape them, but you see my precautions are proving useful.’

As they talked, they climbed up to the loft again and began to prepare Clara’s bed, piling one thing on top of another till the erection began to look like a fortress. ‘Just let a single stalk of hay poke its way through that,’ said Grandmamma, as she tucked the ends well in and patted the surface to make sure it was smooth and even. Then down she came, well satisfied, and went out to the children, who were eagerly discussing how they would spend their precious days together.

‘How long can I stay?’ Clara asked as soon as her grandmother reappeared.

‘We must ask Uncle that,’ was the reply, and as he arrived at that moment, he told them gravely that, in his opinion, they would be able to judge in about four weeks whether the mountain air was really doing Clara good. The children clapped their hands at this, for they had not expected half as much.

The men with Clara’s chair were now sent off and Mrs Sesemann got ready to leave. ‘I won’t say goodbye, Grand‐mamma,’ said Clara, ‘because you’ll come up sometimes to see how we’re getting on, won’t you? We shall love that, won’t we, Heidi?’ But Heidi’s reply was simply to jump up and down, and clap her hands.

Mrs Sesemann then mounted her horse, and Uncle Alp took the bridle, to lead them down the steep slope. She begged him not to trouble himself, but he declared his attention of seeing her safely back to Dörfli, for the steep path could be dangerous to anyone on horseback. Mrs Sesemann did not care to stay on in quiet little Dörfli alone, but decided to go back to Ragaz and make an occasional trip to the mountains from there.