Heidi

by Johanna Spyri

This hamlet was called “Im Dörfli” or “The Little Village.”

I have taken care of her until this summer and now a good place has been offered to me. The child shall not hinder me from accepting it, I tell you that!”

“Nobody knows anything about the old man’s life up there. He doesn’t speak to a living soul, and from one year’s end to the other he keeps away from church.

“she is bright for her five years and keeps her eyes wide open.

when Tobias was helping to build a house, a beam fell on him and killed him. Adelheid was thrown into a violent fever with grief and fright, and never recovered from it.

Here lived Peter the goatherd, a boy eleven years old, who daily fetched the goats from the village and drove them up the mountain to the short and luscious grasses of the pastures.

His father had met with an accident some years ago; he also had been called Peter the goatherd. His mother, whose name was Brigida, was called “Goatherd Peter’s wife” and his blind grandmother was called by young and old from many miles about just “grandmother.”

To save the trouble of carrying them, her aunt had dressed her in her Sunday clothes over her workday garments.

When Peter, who had not paid much attention, saw her suddenly in her light attire, he grinned. Looking back, he saw the little heap of dresses on the ground and then he grinned yet more, till his mouth seemed to reach from ear to ear; but he said never a word.

“Uncle, I have brought the little girl for you to keep,” said Dete. “I have done my share these last four years and now it is your turn to provide for her.”

Stretching out his arm in a commanding gesture, he said to her: “Away with you! Begone! Stay wherever you came from and don’t venture soon again into my sight!” Dete did not have to be told twice. She said “Good-bye” to Heidi and “Farewell” to the uncle, and started down the mountain.

glad when she heard no more calls, because, to tell the truth, she herself was uneasy. Her mother had asked her on her deathbed to care for Heidi. But she consoled herself with the thought that she would be able to do more for the child if she could earn some money.