Transcriber's note: Unusual and inconsistent spelling is as printed.
[Illustration: THE FOUR OF THEM SOON SAT DOWN TO THEIR LUNCH IN A
PARTICULARLY MERRY MOOD.]
A LITTLE
SWISS BOY
BY
JOHANNA SPYRI
Author of "Heidi," "Uncle Titus in the Country,"
"Cornelli, Her Childhood," "Maxa's Children,"
"Moni, The Goat Boy."
Translated by
CLEMENT W. COUMBE
Illustrated by
FRANCES BRUNDAGE
THE
SAALFIELD PUBLISHING COMPANY
AKRON, OH NEW YORK
Made in U. S. A.
Copyright, 1926
By
The Saalfield Publishing Company
CONTENTS
Chapter
I. IN LEUK
II. IN THE PASTURE
III. UNEXPECTED EVENTS
IV. A DEPARTURE AND AN ARRIVAL
V. IN EXILE
VI. STILL HIGHER UP THE MOUNTAIN
VII. STILL MORE MUSIC
VIII. MORE UNEXPECTED EVENTS
IX. SURPRISES, NOT FOR RUSSLI ALONE
X. OLD FRIENDS AND NEW LIFE
XI. ONCE AGAIN THE OLD SONG
FULL PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS
THE FOUR OF THEM SOON SAT DOWN TO THEM LUNCH IN A PARTICULARLY
MERRY MOOD. Frontispiece
"OH, DID YOU FIND MY SCARF AND BRING IT BACK TO ME?" SHE ASKED.
WHEN VINZI STOPPED, JOS EXCLAIMED, "TEACH ME!"
A LITTLE
SWISS BOY
CHAPTER I
IN LEUK
THE June sun shone on the green slope above the village of Leuk and the
grass carpeting the heights far beyond with cool green filled the air
with fragrance. In front of an isolated house on the road to the baths
of Leuk two women engaged in earnest conversation.
"I tell you, Marianne," said the more talkative one, "if you could
furnish a couple of rooms as I did, you would find it very profitable.
You would soon get boarders, for many of the people coming to the baths
do not wish to live there, or they should not, like the three I have.
Of course you live rather far down and most people prefer the higher
localities. If only you lived over there where those people do! They
have the best location on the slope, and own the best meadow land too.
But I do not like them," glancing at the house with an unfriendly look.
"They are eaten up with pride. The man is not so bad, but you should
see the woman!"
"How do they show their pride?" asked Marianne.
"Better ask how they do not show it," quickly replied Magdalen. "They
show it in everything—the way they walk, the way they stand, and they
dress as though every day were Sunday. The boy's black hair is always
curled as though he were going to a church festival, and the little
girl sticks her nose up in the air as much as to say, 'Here I come!'"
"The little girl can't help it if her nose turns up, and the boy isn't
really to blame for his curly hair," Marianne replied. "Doesn't the
woman speak pleasantly when you meet her?"
"Oh, yes, she does that, and I wouldn't advise her to carry her pride
that far," said Magdalen in a threatening tone. "But if you think she
stops a moment to speak a few words, as our other neighbors do, you are
mistaken."
Marianne looked at the house and said in quick surprise, "What has
happened? As long as I can remember that house looked old and gray and
all the windows were grimy with dust. Now it looks like a different
house, so snow white and the windows shine in the sun."
"It is the same house, and the change shows how proud they are,"
answered Magdalen warmly. "Farmer Lesa lived there more than fifty
years with his old housekeeper, and in all those years never drove
so much as a nail in the house. What was good enough for father and
grandfather before him was good enough for him. When his heir came from
over the Gemmi, there started such a tearing down and rebuilding and
such a cleaning up one might suppose a count was moving in. Of course
the wife was the cause of it all."
[Illustration]
"But I should think it would be necessary to clean up and renew things
if nothing had been done for fifty years," said Marianne. "The old
house was no pretty sight, I must say! But why do you say the heir came
from across the Gemmi? Don't the Lesas belong to our section of the
country?"
"Yes, you can find Lesas scattered over the valley," answered Magdalen,
"but one of them was married the other side of the Gemmi and remained
near Berne or Freiburg. I know this only from hearsay, for it happened
a hundred or more years ago. When old Lesa died, it was found his
nearest relatives were those living over there. So Vinzenz Lesa moved
here, bringing his wife and two children; that was a couple of years
ago now. It is said they had a fine house and many cattle on the other
side, and a capital cattle range. I've heard his brother runs that
estate."
"Good gracious, I must be off!" exclaimed Marianne, startled at the
striking of the village clock. "What became of Lesa's housekeeper?"
"She died shortly after he did. She was his cousin and had lived with
him fully fifty years. She was over seventy, so she could not undertake
anything new. Look, look!" continued Magdalen eagerly. "There they come
across the meadow! Now you can see the Lesa woman and her dressed-up
children too."
Marianne did not need much persuasion to tarry, for she was very
curious to see the people they had been talking about. The three came
nearer, and the children must have had a great deal to tell their
mother for they were so engrossed in conversation they had neither eyes
nor ears for anything else.
However, as they approached the house, the mother pleasantly greeted
the two women, the lad pulled off his cap and the little girl called
out in a clear voice, "Good day to you!" but continued on their way.
"They look nice," remarked Marianne with an approving glance. "I see
no pride whatever, Magdalen, but neatness in children as well as in
mother. Her clothes fit so well I am wondering how she does it. The
boy's cap didn't conceal his handsome black curls and the little girl
with her tiptilted little nose and brown braids about her head looks as
merry as a little bird."
"Have you anything else to say?" asked Magdalen, plainly annoyed.
"You are right; I would do better to be on my way than to be talking so
idly," replied Marianne, and moved on.
In the meanwhile Mrs. Lesa with her two children mounted the hill, the
conversation continuing without interruption.
"Can you believe it, mother?" the lad said. "The child isn't much
taller than Stefeli. When we passed Mrs. Troll's house last evening,
she stood at the front door, and she went inside and suddenly we heard
lovely music through the open window. Her brother still sat outside
reading a book, so I asked what it was and he said, 'Alida is playing
the piano.' Think of it, such a little girl! I would have liked to have
listened, but Stefeli said we must go on home for it was getting late."
"And so it was," asserted Stefeli. "I would have been glad to stay too,
but we had to get back home. Even then father was already at the table
when we arrived. I heard that the boy's name is Hugo, and a crooked
lady lives with them, for I heard Alida say to her brother, 'Now I must
go in; otherwise the Fraulein will fetch me in herself and everything
will be all crooked.'"
"No, no, Stefeli," said her mother. "She meant that everything might
go crooked with her if she did not obey. Aren't the children's parents
with them?"
"I'm not sure. What do you think, Vinzi?" asked Stefeli, turning toward
her brother.
"What are you staring at? And why don't you answer your sister?" asked
his mother.
"Listen, mother, listen!" he said softly. "Don't you hear that lovely
sound?"
His mother paused. The wind wafted the sound of the evening bell from
the valley below and as the echoes died away over the hills new notes
rose louder and clearer. The mother's eyes rested on him in mingled
anxiety and surprise, as he listened intently in an effort to catch
just one more note.
"Vinzi, will you listen now to what I say?" asked Stefeli, who showed
no surprise at all at her brother's manner.
"Yes," he answered as though waking out of a dream.
"Is the lady who lives with Alida and Hugo really crooked?" asked
Stefeli, anxious to have that question settled.
"Yes, perhaps," said her brother a little absent-mindedly.
But Stefeli could not tolerate such uncertainty and retorted a little
angrily, "If she is not crooked, she is straight, and there is no
perhaps about it. We will go down to Mrs. Troll's house and see for
ourselves what the lady looks like; can't we, mother?"
"No, we cannot go down to the house on that account," replied the
mother. "But it is time to turn around or father will be home before we
are, and that must not be."
"Perhaps they will be sitting out in front," said Stefeli, holding fast
to her purpose, and now as her mother turned back, she ran ahead, to
discover as quickly as possible if anyone was in front of the Troll
house.
Vinzi wandered along quietly with his mother. He was not talkative now
as when they had climbed the hill, but his mother was used to these
changes in her boy.
"Tell me, Vinzi," she said, "why did you keep on listening after the
sound of the evening bells had died away?"
"Oh, I could still hear them," he replied. "And then suddenly I heard
a wonderful song coming down from the hills. The black firs Joined in
with a deep bass and through it all the bell sang a wonderful song. Oh,
if only I could repeat it!"
"Wasn't it a song you have heard somewhere?" his mother asked
sympathetically, seeking to understand. "If you could sing a little of
it to me, perhaps I might know what it was and tell you the words."
"No, no," declared Vinzi. "It is no song I ever heard and it has no
words."
The mother meditated in silence; she could not understand Vinzi's
meaning. She also had always delighted in music and had taught her
children to sing as soon as they could talk; her greatest joy had been
their daily evening song.
"Come, Vinzi," she now said, "let us sing together. What shall it be?"
"I do not know. If only I could sing the tune that still rings in my
ears!"
"You only think you hear something. Now sing out briskly and you will
enjoy it," advised his mother and started a song Vinzi knew well.
He hesitated but the familiar melody soon attracted him and he joined
with his mother in a way she loved. The song was ended before they
reached Mrs. Troll's house, and Stefeli darted out to them from
behind a tree. From this hiding-place she had been watching the two
children who sat in front of the house, each with a book. Stefeli would
have liked very much to have run up to the little girl and start a
friendship, but the governess came out, and she was not crooked at all,
but so straight and stiff that timid Stefeli hid more carefully behind
the tree. She now told all this and was very happy to have mother and
brother with her as she passed the house, for the governess was still
sitting there.
The children gave one another searching glances for all four of them
were much interested, and Alida said half aloud, "They are the children
we saw yesterday. I think I will go and make their acquaintance."
"No, you must not do that, Alida. We do not know who they are," said
the governess quickly.
"She will not let Alida talk with us; did you hear that, mother?" said
Stefeli.
"Yes," replied Mrs. Lesa. "I am glad you did not run in to see them,
and you must not do so, Stefeli, do you hear?"
"Yes, but then we will never meet, and Alida wanted to so much," said
Stefeli rather rebelliously.
"You see, Stefeli, the governess probably has entire charge of the
children and is responsible for everything they do and for the friends
they make," explained her mother.
"There goes father!" exclaimed Vinzi. "If we wish to get home at the
same time he does we must walk faster."
As this was the mother's wish, they hastened their steps and met him a
short distance from their home, and soon the little family was seated
around the supper table.
Everything was quiet during the meal for the children knew they had to
be silent and their parents spoke but little.
As soon as the children had finished, Vinzi asked, "May we go out
doors?"
And when permission was granted, they hurried off to the barn
where there were plenty of nooks and corners for a grand game of
hide-and-seek.
The June evening was bright and warm, and Vinzenz Lesa rose cheerfully
from the table, went outside and seated himself on the bench in front
of the house to enjoy his pipe. Soon afterward his wife came out and
sat beside him. Now he grew talkative and told of his visit that day to
an acquaintance down in the valley: how he had looked over his meadows,
fields and cattle and when he had silently compared them with his own
property he had to say to himself:
"Vinzenz Lesa, that is a fine property you have inherited."
"Yes, we ought to be thankful, and we will be, Vinzenz," said his wife.
"That is quite true," he continued, "but when I rejoice and plan how
to improve the farm and increase the stock, it seems I am hobbled so I
cannot take another step. It is the boy Vinzi I mean. For whom should
I do all this if not for him? And what kind of a boy is he? He has
no eyes in his head! He shows no pleasure, not a bit of interest in
leading out to pasture the finest cows to be found anywhere around. If
I say to him, 'Just look at the fine fodder in this meadow!' he says,
'Yes,' and looks absently into the distance. There is something wrong
with him."
"No, no, Vinzenz, that is saying too much," interrupted his wife
eagerly. "If Vinzi does not always listen and sometimes lets his
thoughts wander and does not show any real pleasure in farming, at
least he has done no harm."
"I do not say he has," replied Mr. Lesa. "But what I do say is that
there is something wrong when a boy has no feeling for such meadows
and fields as we own and for such cows as are in my stalls, and for
everything that belongs to a choice farm. But how to help it I do not
know."
"Something may happen to bring about a change. He is young yet, you
know," replied his wife in an effort to soothe him, although her own
anxiety about the lad had been increased by the afternoon's experience.
Thinking it best to change the subject she told him how, in passing
Mrs. Troll's house that day, she had seen the people who had taken the
upper rooms for the summer; the two children had looked so nice she
would like to have them in her own house.
"A man can never tell what his wife will think of next!" he exclaimed
with rising anger. "But I know what you are aiming at, and I say, let
it alone. I want to live by myself, and as to these strange gentlefolk,
our children are not to have anything to do with them, or our girl will
be as spoilt as our boy. I am glad to say she is quite different from
him. The young heifer runs after her and eats out of her hand. When she
is told something, she pays attention, but the boy—he knows nothing."
"To hear you, one might suppose being well brought up was some sort of
a disease, Vinzenz," replied the wife calmly. "But you have no need to
worry. The governess takes good care her charges do not come near ours.
But now it is time to go indoors," and she called the children to their
evening hymn.