SHOOTING DOWN THE MOUNTAIN SIDE
The next morning the sun came out early as bright as ever, and then
Peter appeared with the goats, and again the two children climbed up
together to the high meadows, and so it went on day after day till
Heidi, passing her life thus among the grass and flowers, was burnt
brown with the sun, and grew so strong and healthy that nothing ever
ailed her. She was happy too, and lived from day to day as free and
lighthearted as the little birds that make their home among the green
forest trees. Then the autumn came, and the wind blew louder and
stronger, and the grandfather would say sometimes, "Today you must stay
at home, Heidi; a sudden gust of the wind would blow a little thing
like you over the rocks into the valley below in a moment."
Whenever Peter heard that he must go alone he looked very unhappy, for
he saw nothing but mishaps of all kinds ahead, and did not know how
he should bear the long, dull day without Heidi. Then, too, there was
the good meal he would miss, and besides that the goats on these days
were so naughty and obstinate that he had twice the usual trouble with
them, for they had grown so accustomed to Heidi's presence that they
would run in every direction and refuse to go on unless she was with
them. Heidi was never unhappy, for wherever she was she found something
to interest or amuse her. She liked best, it is true, to go out with
Peter up to the flowers and the great bird, but she also found her
grandfather's hammering and sawing and carpentering very entertaining,
and if it should chance to be the day when the large, round goats'-milk
cheese was made she enjoyed beyond measure watching her grandfather
stir the great cauldron. The thing which attracted her most, however,
was the waving and roaring of the three old fir trees on these windy
days. She would stand underneath them and look up, unable to tear
herself away, looking and listening while they bowed and swayed and
roared as the mighty wind rushed through them. There was no longer now
the warm, bright sun that had shone all through the summer, so Heidi
went to the cupboard and got out her shoes and stockings and dress.
Then it grew very cold, and Peter would come up early in the morning
blowing on his fingers to keep them warm. But he soon left off coming,
for one night there was a heavy fall of snow and the next morning the
whole mountain was covered with it, and not a single little green leaf
even was to be seen anywhere upon it. There was no Peter that day, and
Heidi stood at the little window looking out in wonderment, for the
snow was beginning again, and the thick flakes kept falling till the
snow was up to the window, and still they continued to fall, and the
snow grew higher, so that at last the window could not be opened, and
she and her grandfather were shut up fast within the hut. Heidi thought
this was great fun and ran from one window to the other. The next day,
the snow having ceased, the grandfather went out and shoveled it away
from the house, and threw it into such great heaps that they looked
like mountains.
Heidi and her grandfather were sitting one afternoon on their
three-legged stools before the fire when there came a great thump at
the door. It was Peter all white with snow for he had had to fight his
way through deep snowdrifts. He had been determined, however, to climb
up to the hut, for it was a week now since he had seen Heidi.
"Good-evening," he said as he came in; then he went and placed himself
as near the fire as he could, his whole face beaming with pleasure
at finding himself there. Heidi looked on in astonishment, for Peter
was beginning to thaw all over with the warmth, so that he had the
appearance of a trickling waterfall.
"Well, General, how goes it with you?" said the grandfather, "now that
you have lost your army you will have to turn to your pen and pencil."
"Why must he turn to his pen and pencil," asked Heidi immediately, full
of curiosity.
"During the winter he must go to school," explained her grandfather,
"and learn how to read and write; it's a bit hard, although useful
sometimes afterwards. Am I not right, General?"
"Yes, indeed," assented Peter.
Heidi's interest was now thoroughly awakened, and she had so many
questions to ask Peter about school, and the conversation took so long
that he had time to get thoroughly dry.
"Well, now, General, you have been under fire for some time and must
want some refreshment. Come and join us," said the grandfather as he
brought the supper out of the cupboard, and Heidi pushed the stools to
the table. There was also now a bench fastened against the wall, for
as he was no longer alone the grandfather had put up seats of various
kinds here and there, long enough to hold two persons, for Heidi had a
way of always keeping close to her grandfather whether he was walking,
sitting, or standing. Peter opened his round eyes very wide when he
saw what a large piece of meat Alm-Uncle gave him on his thick slice
of bread. It was a long time since Peter had had anything so nice to
eat. As soon as the pleasant meal was over he began to get ready for
returning home, for it was already growing dark. He had said his
"good-night" and his thanks, and was just going out, when he turned
and said, "I shall come again next Sunday, this day week, and my
grandmother sent word that she would like you to come and see her some
day."
It was quite a new idea to Heidi that she should go and pay anybody a
visit, and she could not get it out of her head; so the first thing she
said to her grandfather the next day was, "I must go down to see the
grandmother today, she will be expecting me."
"The snow is too deep," answered the grandfather, trying to put her
off. Not a day passed but what she said five or six times to her
grandfather, "I must certainly go today, the grandmother will be
waiting for me."
On the fourth day, when Heidi was sitting on her high stool at dinner
with the bright sun shining in upon her through the window, she again
repeated her little speech, "I must certainly go down to see the
grandmother today, or else I shall keep her waiting too long."
The grandfather rose from the table, climbed up to the hayloft and
brought down the thick sack that was Heidi's coverlid, and said,
"Come along then!" The child skipped out gleefully after him into the
glittering world of snow.
The old fir trees were standing now quite silent, their branches
covered with the white snow, and they looked so lovely as they
glittered and sparkled in the sunlight that Heidi jumped for joy at the
sight and kept on calling out, "Come here, come here, Grandfather! The
fir trees are all silver and gold!" The grandfather had gone into the
shed and he now came out, dragging a large hand-sleigh; inside there
was a low seat, and the sleigh could be pushed forward and guided by
the feet of the one who sat upon it with the help of a pole that was
fastened to the side. The old man got in and lifted the child on to his
lap; then he wrapped her up in the sack, that she might keep nice and
warm, and put his left arm closely round her, for it was necessary to
hold her tight during the coming journey. He now grasped the pole with
his right hand and gave the sleigh a push forward with his two feet.
It shot down the mountain side with such rapidity that Heidi thought
they were flying through the air like a bird, and shouted aloud with
delight. Suddenly they came to a standstill, and there they were at
Peter's hut. Her grandfather lifted her out and unwrapped her. "There
you are, now go in, and when it begins to grow dark you must start
on your way home again." Then he left her and went up the mountain,
pulling his sleigh after him.
Heidi opened the door of the hut and stepped into a tiny room that
looked very dark, with a fireplace and a few dishes on a wooden shelf;
this was the little kitchen. She opened another door, and found herself
in another small room, for the place was not a herdsman's hut like her
grandfather's, with one large room on the ground floor and a hay-loft
above, but a very old cottage, where everything was narrow and poor
and shabby. A table was close to the door, and as Heidi stepped in she
saw a woman sitting at it, putting a patch on a waistcoat which Heidi
recognized at once as Peter's. In the corner sat an old woman, bent
with age, spinning. Heidi was quite sure this was the grandmother, so
she went up to the spinning-wheel and said, "Good-day, Grandmother, I
have come at last; did you think I was a long time coming?"
The old woman raised her head and felt for the hand that the child
held out to her, and when she had found it, she passed her own over it
thoughtfully for a few seconds, and then said, "Are you the child who
lives up with Alm-Uncle, are you Heidi?"
"Yes, yes," answered Heidi, "I have just come down in the sleigh with
grandfather."
"Is it possible! Why, your hands are quite warm! Brigitta, did
Alm-Uncle come himself with the child?"
Peter's mother had left her work and risen from the table and now stood
looking at Heidi with curiosity, scanning her from head to foot. "I do
not know, mother, whether Uncle came himself; it is hardly likely, the
child probably makes a mistake."
But Heidi looked steadily at the woman, and said, "I know quite well
who wrapped me up in my bedcover and brought me down in the sleigh: it
was grandfather."
"There was some truth then perhaps in what Peter used to tell us of
Alm-Uncle during the summer, when we thought he must be wrong," said
grandmother; "but who would ever have believed that such a thing was
possible; I did not think the child would live three weeks up there.
What is she like, Brigitta?"
The latter had so thoroughly examined Heidi on all sides that she was
well able to describe her to her mother.
Heidi meanwhile had not been idle; she had made the round of the room
and looked carefully at everything there was to be seen. All of a
sudden she exclaimed, "Grandmother, one of your shutters is flapping
backwards and forwards: grandfather would put a nail in and make it all
right in a minute. It will break one of the panes some day; look, how
it keeps on banging!"
"Ah, dear child," said the old woman, "I am not able to see it, but I
can hear that and many other things besides the shutter. Everything
about the place rattles and creaks when the wind is blowing, and it
gets inside through all the cracks and holes. The house is going to
pieces, and in the night, when the two others are asleep, I often lie
awake in fear and trembling, thinking that the whole place will give
way and fall and kill us. And there is not a creature to mend anything
for us, for Peter does not understand such work."
"But why cannot you see, Grandmother, that the shutter is loose. Look,
there it goes again, see, that one there!" And Heidi pointed to the
particular shutter.
"Alas, child, I can see nothing, nothing," said the grandmother in a
voice of lamentation.
"But if I were to go outside and put back the shutter so that you had
more light, then you could see, Grandmother?"
"No, no, not even then, no one can make it light for me again."
"But if you were to go outside among all the white snow, then surely
you would find it light; just come with me, Grandmother, and I will
show you." Heidi took hold of the old woman's hand to lead her along,
for she was beginning to feel quite distressed at the thought of her
being without light.
"Let me be, dear child; it is always dark for me now; whether in snow
or sun. It will never be light for me again on earth, never."
At these words Heidi broke into loud crying. In her distress she kept
on sobbing out, "Who can make it light for you again? Can no one do it?
Isn't there any one who can do it?"
The grandmother now tried to comfort the child, but it was not easy to
quiet her. Heidi did not often weep, but when she did she could not get
over her trouble for a long while. At last the old woman said, "Dear
Heidi, you cannot think how glad I am to hear a kind word when I can no
longer see, and it is such a pleasure to me to listen to you while you
talk. So come and sit beside me and tell me what you do up there, and
how grandfather occupies himself. I knew him very well in the old days;
but for many years now I have heard nothing of him, except through
Peter, who never says much."
This was a new and happy idea to Heidi; she quickly dried her tears
and said in a comforting voice, "Wait, Grandmother, till I have told
grandfather everything, he will make it light for you again, I am sure,
and will do something so that the house will not fall; he will put
everything right for you."
Heidi now began to give a lively description of her life with the
grandfather, and of the days she spent on the mountain with the goats,
and then went on to tell what she did during the winter, and how her
grandfather was able to make all sorts of things, seats and stools, and
mangers where the hay was put for Little Swan and Little Bear, besides
a new large water-tub for her to bathe in when the summer came, and a
new milk-bowl and spoon.
The grandmother listened with the greatest attention, only from time to
time addressing her daughter, "Do you hear that, Brigitta? Do you hear
what she is saying about Uncle?"
The conversation was suddenly interrupted by a heavy thump on the door,
and in marched Peter, who stood stock-still, opening his eyes with
astonishment, when he caught sight of Heidi; then his face beamed with
smiles as she called out, "Good-evening, Peter."
"What, is the boy back from school already," exclaimed the grandmother
in surprise. "I have not known an afternoon to pass so quickly as this
one for years. How is the reading getting on, Peter?"
"As usual," was Peter's answer.
The old woman gave a little sigh, "Ah, well," she said, "I hoped you
would have something different to tell me by this time, as you are
going to be twelve years old this February."
"What was it you hoped he would have to tell you?" asked Heidi,
interested in all the grandmother said.
"I mean that he ought to have learnt to read a bit by now," continued
the grandmother. "Up there on the shelf is an old prayer-book, with
beautiful songs in it which I have not heard for a long time and
cannot now remember to repeat to myself, and I hoped that Peter would
soon learn enough to be able to read one of them to me sometimes; but
he finds it too difficult."
Heidi now jumped up from her low chair, and holding out her hand
hastily to the grandmother said, "Good-night, Grandmother, it is
getting dark; I must go home at once," and bidding good-bye to Peter
and his mother she went towards the door. But the grandmother called
out in an anxious voice, "Wait, wait, Heidi, you must not go alone like
that, Peter must go with you. Have you got something warm to put round
your throat?"
"I have not anything to put on," called back Heidi, "but I am sure I
shall not be cold," and with that she ran outside and went off at such
a pace that Peter had difficulty in overtaking her.
The children had taken but a few steps before they saw the grandfather
coming down to meet them, and in another minute his long strides had
brought him to their side.
"That's right, Heidi; you have kept your word," said the grandfather,
and then wrapping the sack firmly round her he lifted her in his arms
and strode off with her up the mountain.
They had no sooner got inside the hut than Heidi at once began:
"Grandfather, tomorrow we must take the hammer and the long nails and
fasten grandmother's shutter, and drive in a lot more nails in other
places, for her house shakes and rattles all over."
[Illustration: HEIDI NOW BEGAN TO GIVE A LIVELY DESCRIPTION OF HER LIFE
WITH THE GRANDFATHER]
"We must, must we? who told you that?" asked her grandfather.
"Nobody told me, but I know it for all that," replied Heidi, "for
everything is giving way, and when the grandmother cannot sleep, she
lies trembling, for she thinks that every minute the house will fall
down on their heads; and everything now is dark for grandmother, and
she does not think any one can make it light for her again, but you
will be able to, I am sure, Grandfather. Tomorrow we must go and help
her; we will, won't we, Grandfather?"
The child was clinging to the old man and looking up at him in trustful
confidence. The grandfather looked down at Heidi for a while without
speaking, and then said, "Yes, Heidi, we will do something to stop the
rattling, at least we can do that; we will go down about it tomorrow."
The child went skipping round the room for joy, crying out, "We shall
go tomorrow! we shall go tomorrow!"
The grandfather kept his promise. On the following afternoon he brought
the sleigh out again, and as on the previous day, he set Heidi down at
the door of the grandmother's hut and said, "Go in now, and when it
grows dark, come out again." Then he put the sack in the sleigh and
went round the house.
Heidi had hardly opened the door and sprung into the room when the
grandmother called out from her corner, "It's the child again! here she
comes!" Heidi ran to her, and then quickly drew the little stool close
up to the old woman, and seating herself upon it, began to tell and
ask her all kinds of things. All at once came the sound of heavy blows
against the wall of the hut and grandmother gave such a start of alarm
that she nearly upset the spinning-wheel, and cried in a trembling
voice, "Ah, my God, now it is coming, the house is going to fall upon
us!" But Heidi caught her by the arm, and said soothingly, "No, no,
Grandmother, do not be frightened, it is only grandfather with his
hammer; he is mending up everything, so that you shan't have such fear
and trouble."
"Is it possible! is it really possible! so the dear God has not
forgotten us!" exclaimed the grandmother. "Do you hear, Brigitta, what
that noise is? Did you hear what the child says? Go outside, Brigitta,
and if it is Alm-Uncle, tell him he must come inside a moment that I
may thank him."
Brigitta went outside and found Alm-Uncle in the act of fastening some
heavy pieces of new wood along the wall. She stepped up to him and
said, "Good-evening, Uncle, mother and I thank you for doing us such
a kind service, and she would like to tell you herself how grateful
she is; I do not know who else would have done it for us; we shall not
forget your kindness, for I am sure--"
"That will do," said the old man, interrupting her. "I know what you
think of Alm-Uncle without your telling me. Go indoors again, I can
find out for myself where the mending is wanted."
Brigitta obeyed on the spot, for Uncle had a way with him that made few
people care to oppose his will. He went on knocking with his hammer all
round the house, and then mounted the narrow steps to the roof, and
hammered away there, until he had used up all the nails he had brought
with him. Meanwhile it had been growing dark, and he had hardly come
down from the roof and dragged the sleigh out from behind the goat-shed
when Heidi appeared outside. The grandfather wrapped her up and took
her in his arms as he had done the day before, for although he had to
drag the sleigh up the mountain after him, he feared that if the child
sat in it alone her wrappings would fall off and that she would be
nearly if not quite frozen, so he carried her warm and safe in his arms.
So the winter went by. After many years of joyless life, the blind
grandmother had at last found something to make her happy. She listened
for the little tripping footstep as soon as day had come, and when she
heard the door open and knew the child was really there, she would call
out, "God be thanked, she has come again!"
And Heidi had also grown very fond of the old grandmother, and when
at last she knew for certain that no one could make it light for her
again, she was overcome with sorrow; but the grandmother told her
again that she felt the darkness much less when Heidi was with her,
and so every fine winter's day the child came traveling down in her
sleigh. The grandfather always took her, never raising any objection,
indeed he always carried the hammer and sundry other things down in the
sleigh with him, and many an afternoon was spent by him in making the
goatherd's cottage sound and tight. It no longer groaned and rattled
the whole night through, and the grandmother, who for many winters had
not been able to sleep in peace as she did now, said she should never
forget what the Uncle had done for her.