THE DOCTOR COMES WITH PRESENTS
The early light of morning lay rosy red upon the mountains, and a fresh
breeze rustled through the fir trees and set their ancient branches
waving to and fro. The sound awoke Heidi and she jumped out of bed and
dressed herself as quickly as she could.
When she went down her ladder she found her grandfather had already
left the hut. He was standing outside looking at the sky and examining
the landscape as he did every morning, to see what sort of weather it
was going to be.
Little pink clouds were floating over the sky, that was growing
brighter and bluer with every minute, while the heights and the meadow
lands were turning gold under the rising sun, which was just appearing
above the topmost peaks.
"O, how beautiful! how beautiful! Good-morning, Grandfather!" cried
Heidi, running out.
"What, you are awake already, are you?" he answered, giving her a
morning greeting.
Then Heidi ran round to the fir trees to enjoy the sound she loved so
well, and with every fresh gust of wind which came roaring through
their branches she gave a fresh jump and cry of delight.
Meanwhile the grandfather had gone to milk the goats; this done he
brushed and washed them, ready for their mountain excursion, and
brought them out of their shed. As soon as Heidi caught sight of them
she ran and embraced them, and they bleated in return, while they
vied with each other in showing their affection by poking their heads
against her and trying which could get nearest her. When the lively
Little Bear gave rather too violent a thrust, she only said, "No,
Little Bear, you are pushing like the Great Turk," and Little Bear
immediately drew back his head and left off his rough attentions, while
Little Swan lifted her head and put on an expression as much as to say,
"No one shall ever accuse me of behaving like the Great Turk."
Peter's whistle was heard and all the goats came along, leaping and
springing, and Heidi soon found herself surrounded by the whole flock,
pushed this way and that by their obstreperous greetings, but at last
she managed to get through them to where Snowflake was standing, for
the young goat had in vain striven to reach her.
Peter now gave a last tremendous whistle, in order to startle the goats
and drive them off, for he wanted to get near himself to say something
to Heidi. The goats sprang aside and he came up to her.
"Can you come out with me today?" he asked, evidently unwilling to hear
her refuse.
"I am afraid I cannot, Peter," she answered. "I am expecting them every
minute from Frankfurt, and I must be at home when they come."
"You have said the same thing for days now," grumbled Peter.
"I must continue to say it till they come," replied Heidi. "How can you
think, Peter, that I would be away when they came? As if I could do
such a thing?"
"They would find Uncle at home," he answered with a snarling voice.
But at this moment the grandfather's stentorian voice was heard.
"Why is the army not marching forward? Is it the field-marshal who is
missing or some of the troops?"
Whereupon Peter turned and went off, swinging his stick round so that
it whistled through the air, and the goats, who understood the signal,
started at full trot for their mountain pasture, Peter following in
their wake.
Since Heidi had come back to her grandfather she had learned to do many
things about the house. She put her bed in order every morning, patting
and stroking it till she had got it perfectly smooth and flat. Then she
went about the room downstairs, put each chair back in its place, and
if she found anything lying about she put it in the cupboard. After
that she fetched a duster, climbed on a chair, and rubbed the table
till it shone again. When the grandfather came in later he would look
round well pleased and say to himself, "We look like Sunday every day
now; Heidi did not go abroad for nothing."
After Peter had departed and she and her grandfather had breakfasted,
Heidi began her daily work as usual, but she did not get on with it
very fast. It was so lovely out of doors today, and every minute
something happened to interrupt her in her work. Now it was a bright
beam of sun shining cheerfully through the open window, and seeming
to say, "Come out, Heidi, come out!" Heidi felt she could not stay
indoors, and she ran out in answer to the call. The sunlight lay
sparkling on everything around the hut and on all the mountains and
far away along the valley, and the grass slope looked so golden and
inviting that she was obliged to sit down for a few minutes and look
about her. Then she suddenly remembered that her stool was left
standing in the middle of the floor and that the table had not been
rubbed, and she jumped up and ran inside again. But it was not long
before the fir trees began their old song; Heidi felt it in all her
limbs, and again the desire to run outside was irresistible, and
she was off to play and leap to the tune of the waving branches. The
grandfather, who was busy in his work-shed, stepped out from time to
time smiling to watch her at her gambols. He had just gone back to his
work on one of these occasions when Heidi called out, "Grandfather!
Grandfather! Come, come!"
He stepped quickly out, almost afraid something had happened to
the child, but he saw her running towards where the mountain path
descended, crying, "They are coming! they are coming! and the doctor is
in front of them!"
Heidi rushed forward to welcome her old friend, who held out his
hands in greeting to her. When she came up to him she clung to his
outstretched arm, and exclaimed in the joy of her heart, "Good-morning,
doctor, and thank you ever so many times."
"God bless you, child! what have you got to thank me for?" asked the
doctor, smiling.
"For being at home again with grandfather," the child explained.
The doctor's face brightened as if a sudden ray of sunshine had passed
across it; he had not expected such a reception as this. He had
quite thought that Heidi would have forgotten him; she had seen so
little of him, and he had felt rather like one bearing a message of
disappointment. But instead, here was Heidi, her eyes dancing for joy,
and full of gratitude and affection, clinging to the arm of her kind
friend.
He took her by the hand with fatherly tenderness. "Take me now to your
grandfather, Heidi, and show me where you live."
But Heidi still remained standing looking down the path with a
questioning gaze. "Where are Clara and grandmother?" she asked.
"Ah, now I have to tell you something which you will be as sorry about
as I am," answered the doctor. "You see, Heidi, I have come alone.
Clara was very ill and could not travel, and so the grandmother stayed
behind too. But next spring, when the days grow warm and long again,
they are coming here for certain."
Heidi stood motionless for a second or two, overcome by the unexpected
disappointment. She suddenly remembered that the doctor had really come
anyway. She lifted her eyes and saw the sad expression in his as he
looked down at her; she had never seen him with that look on his face
when she was in Frankfurt. It went to Heidi's heart; she could not bear
to see anybody unhappy, especially her dear doctor. No doubt it was
because Clara and grandmother could not come, and so she began to think
how best she might console him.
"Oh, it won't be very long to wait for spring, and then they will
be sure to come," she said in a reassuring voice. "Time passes very
quickly with us, and then they will be able to stay longer when they
are here, and Clara will be pleased at that. Now let us go and find
grandfather."
Hand in hand with her friend she climbed up to the hut. She was so
anxious to make the doctor happy again that she began once more
assuring him that the winter passed quickly on the mountain and that
summer would be back again before they knew it, and she became so
convinced of the truth of her own words that she called out quite
cheerfully to her grandfather as they approached, "They have not come
today, but they will be here in a very short time."
[Illustration: IT WAS NOT LONG BEFORE THE FIR TREES BEGAN
THEIR OLD SONG]
The doctor was no stranger to the grandfather, for the child had talked
to him so much about her friend. The old man held out his hand to his
guest in friendly greeting. Then the two men sat down in front of the
hut. The doctor whispered to Heidi that there was something being
brought up the mountain which had traveled with him from Frankfurt,
and which would give her even more pleasure than seeing him. Heidi
got into a great state of excitement on hearing this, wondering what
it could be. The old man urged the doctor to spend as many of the
beautiful autumn days on the mountain as he could, and at least to come
up whenever it was fine; he could not offer him a lodging, as he had
no place to put him; he advised the doctor, however, not to go back to
Ragatz, but to stay at Doerfli, where there was a clean, tidy little
inn. Then the doctor could come up every morning, which would do him
no end of good, and if he liked, he, the grandfather, would act as his
guide to any part of the mountains he would like to see. The doctor was
delighted with this proposal, and it was settled that it should be as
the grandfather suggested.
Alm-Uncle now rose and went indoors, returning in a few minutes with a
table which he placed in front of the seat.
"There, Heidi, now run in and bring us what we want for the table," he
said. "The doctor must take us as he finds us; if the food is plain, he
will acknowledge that the dining-room is pleasant."
"I should think so indeed," replied the doctor as he looked down over
the sun-lit valley, "and I accept the kind invitation; everything must
taste good up here."
Heidi ran backwards and forwards as busy as a bee and brought out
everything she could find in the cupboard. The grandfather meanwhile
had been preparing the meal, and now appeared with a steaming jug of
milk and golden-brown toasted cheese. Then he cut some thin slices from
the meat he had cured himself in the pure air, and the doctor enjoyed
his dinner better than he had for a whole year past.
"Our Clara must certainly come up here," he said, "it would make her
quite a different person, and if she could eat for any length of time
as I have today, she would grow plumper than any one has ever known her
before."
As he spoke a man was seen coming up the path carrying a large package
on his back. When he reached the hut he threw it on the ground and drew
in two or three good breaths of the mountain air.
"Ah, here's what travelled with me from Frankfurt," said the doctor,
rising, and he went up to the package and began undoing it, Heidi
looking on in great expectation. After he had released it from its
heavy outer covering, "There, child," he said, "now you can go on
unpacking your treasures yourself."
Heidi undid her presents one by one until they were all displayed; she
could not speak for wonder and delight. Not till the doctor opened the
large box to show Heidi the cakes that were for the grandmother to
eat with her coffee, did she at last give a cry of joy, exclaiming,
"Now grandmother will have nice things to eat," and she wanted to pack
everything up again and start at once to give them to her. But the
grandfather said he should walk down with the doctor that evening and
she could go with them and take the things. Heidi next found the packet
of tobacco which she ran and gave to her grandfather; he was so pleased
with it that he immediately filled his pipe with some, and the two men
then sat down together again, the smoke curling up from their pipes as
they talked of all kinds of things, while Heidi continued to examine
first one and then another of her presents. Suddenly she ran up to
them, and standing in front of the doctor waited till there was a pause
in the conversation, and then said, "No, the presents have not given me
more pleasure than seeing you, doctor."
The two men could not help laughing, and the doctor answered that he
should never have thought it.
As the sun began to sink behind the mountains the doctor rose, thinking
it time to return to Doerfli and seek for quarters. The grandfather
carried the cakes and the shawl and the large sausage, and the doctor
took Heidi's hand, as they all three started down the mountain. Arrived
at Peter's home Heidi bid the others good-bye; she was to wait at
grandmother's till her grandfather, who was going on to Doerfli with
his guest, returned for her. As the doctor shook hands with her she
asked, "Would you like to come out with the goats tomorrow morning?"
for she could think of no greater treat to offer him.
"Agreed!" answered the doctor, "we will go together."
Heidi now ran in to the grandmother: she first, with some effort,
managed to carry in the box of cakes; then she ran out again and
brought in the sausage--for her grandfather had put the presents down
by the door--and then a third time for the shawl. She placed them as
close as she could to the grandmother, so that the latter might be able
to feel them and understand what was there. The shawl she laid over the
old woman's knees.
"They are all from Frankfurt, from Clara and grandmamma," she explained
to the astonished grandmother and Brigitta, the latter having watched
her dragging in all the heavy things unable to imagine what was
happening.
"And you are very pleased with the cakes, aren't you, Grandmother?
taste how soft they are!" said Heidi over and over again, to which the
grandmother continued to answer, "Yes, yes, Heidi, I should think so!
what kind people they must be!" And then she would pass her hand over
the warm, thick shawl and add, "This will be beautiful for the cold
winter! I never thought I should ever have such a splendid thing as
this to put on."
Heidi could not help feeling some surprise at the grandmother seeming
to take more pleasure in the shawl than the cakes. Meanwhile Brigitta
stood gazing at the sausage with almost an expression of awe. She had
hardly in her life seen such a monster sausage, much less owned one,
and she could scarcely believe her eyes.
Peter came tumbling in at this minute. "Uncle is just behind me, he
is coming--" he began, and then stopped short, for his eye had caught
sight of the sausage, and he was too much taken aback to say more. But
Heidi understood that her grandfather was near and so said good-bye
to grandmother. The old man now never passed the door without going
in to wish the old woman good-day, and she liked to hear his footstep
approaching, for he always had a cheery word for her. But today it
was growing late for Heidi, who was always up with the lark, and the
grandfather would never let her go to bed after hours; so this evening
he only called good-night through the open door and started home at
once with the child, and the two climbed under the starlit sky back to
their peaceful dwelling.