Heidi (27 page)

Heidi was instantly mollified. "That's right, then we'll begin
at once," she said cheerfully, and went busily to work on the
spot, dragging Peter to the table and fetching her books.

Among other presents Clara had sent Heidi a book which the
latter had decided, in bed the night before, would serve
capitally for teaching Peter, for it was an A B C book with
rhyming lines. And now the two sat together at the table with
their heads bent over the book, for the lesson had begun.

Peter was made to spell out the first sentence two or three
times over, for Heidi wished him to get it correct and fluent. At
last she said, "You don't seem able to get it right, but I will
read it aloud to you once; when you know what it ought to be you
will find it easier." And she read out:—

A B C must be learnt to-day
Or the judge will call you up to pay.

"I shan't go," said Peter obstinately.

"Go where?" asked Heidi.

"Before the judge," he answered.

"Well then make haste and learn these three letters, then you
won't have to go."

Peter went at his task again and repeated the three letters so
many times and with such determination that she said at last,—

"You must know those three now."

Seeing what an effect the first two lines of verse had had upon
him, she thought she would prepare the ground a little for the
following lessons.

"Wait, and I will read you some of the next sentences," she
continued, "then you will see what else there is to expect."

And she began in a clear slow voice:—

D E F G must run with ease
Or something will follow that does not please.

Should H I J K be now forgot
Disgrace is yours upon the spot.

And then L M must follow at once
Or punished you'll be for a sorry dunce.

If you knew what next awaited you
You'd haste to learn N O P Q.

Now R S T be quick about
Or worse will follow there's little doubt.

Heidi paused, for Peter was so quiet that she looked to see what
he was doing. These many secret threats and hints of dreadful
punishments had so affected him that he sat as if petrified and
stared at Heidi with horror-stricken eyes. Her kind heart was
moved at once, and she said, wishing to reassure him, "You need
not be afraid, Peter; come here to me every evening, and if you
learn as you have to-day you will at last know all your letters,
and the other things won't come. But you must come regularly,
not now and then as you do to school; even if it snows it won't
hurt you."

Peter promised, for the trepidation he had been in had made him
quite tame and docile. Lessons being finished for this day he
now went home.

Peter obeyed Heidi's instructions punctually, and every evening
went diligently to work to learn the following letters, taking
the sentences thoroughly to heart. The grandfather was
frequently in the room smoking his pipe comfortably while the
lesson was going on, and his face twitched occasionally as if he
was overtaken with a sudden fit of merriment. Peter was often
invited to stay to supper after the great exertion he had gone
through, which richly compensated him for the anguish of mind he
had suffered with the sentence for the day.

So the winter went by, and Peter really made progress with his
letters; but he went through a terrible fight each day with the
sentences.

He had got at last to U. Heidi read out:—

And if you put the U for V,
You'll go where you would not like to be.

Peter growled, "Yes, but I shan't go!" But he was very diligent
that day, as if under the impression that some one would seize
him suddenly by the collar and drag him where he would rather
not go. The next evening Heidi read:—

If you falter at W, worst of all,
Look at the stick against the wall.

Peter looked at the wall and said scornfully, "There isn't one."

"Yes, but do you know what grandfather has in his box?" asked
Heidi. "A stick as thick almost as your arm, and if he took that
out, you might well say, look at the stick on the wall."

Peter knew that thick hazel stick, and immediately bent his head
over the W and struggled to master it. Another day the lines ran:—

Then comes the X for you to say
Or be sure you'll get no food to-day.

Peter looked towards the cupboard where the bread and cheese
were kept and said crossly, "I never said that I should forget
the X."

"That's all right; if you don't forget it we can go on to learn
the next, and then you will only have one more," replied Heidi,
anxious to encourage him.

Peter did not quite understand, but when Heidi went on and read:—

And should you make a stop at Y,
They'll point at you and cry, Fie, fie.

All the gentlemen in Frankfurt with tall black hats on their
heads, and scorn and mockery in their faces rose up before his
mind's eye, and he threw himself with energy on the Y, not
letting it go till at last he knew it so thoroughly that he
could see what it was like even when he shut his eyes.

He arrived on the following day in a somewhat lofty frame of
mind, for there was now only one letter to struggle over, and
when Heidi began the lesson with reading aloud:—

Make haste with Z, if you're too slow
Off to the Hottentots you'll go.

Peter remarked scornfully, "I dare say, when no one knows even
where such people live."

"I assure you, Peter," replied Heidi, "grandfather knows all
about them. Wait a second and I will run and ask him, for he is
only over the way with the pastor." And she rose and ran to the
door to put her words into action, but Peter cried out in a
voice of agony,—

"Stop!" for he already saw himself being carried off by Alm-
Uncle and the pastor and sent straight away to the Hottentots,
since as yet he did not know his last letter. His cry of fear
brought Heidi back.

"What is the matter?" she asked in astonishment.

"Nothing! come back! I am going to learn my letter," he said,
stammering with fear. Heidi, however, herself wished to know
where the Hottentots lived and persisted that she should ask her
grandfather, but she gave in at last to Peter's despairing
entreaties. She insisted on his doing something in return, and
so not only had he to repeat his Z until it was so fixed in his
memory that he could never forget it again, but she began
teaching him to spell, and Peter really made a good start that
evening. So it went on from day to day.

The frost had gone and the snow was soft again, and moreover
fresh snow continually fell, so that it was quite three weeks
before Heidi could go to the grandmother again. So much the more
eagerly did she pursue her teaching so that Peter might
compensate for her absence by reading hymns to the old woman.
One evening he walked in home after leaving Heidi, and as he
entered he said, "I can do it now."

"Do what, Peter?" asked his mother.

"Read," he answered.

"Do you really mean it? Did you hear that, grandmother?" she
called out.

The grandmother had heard, and was already wondering how such a
thing could have come to pass.

"I must read one of the hymns now; Heidi told me to," he went on
to inform them. His mother hastily fetched the book, and the
grandmother lay in joyful expectation, for it was so long since
she had heard the good words. Peter sat down to the table and
began to read. His mother sat beside him listening with surprise
and exclaiming at the close of each verse, "Who would have
thought it possible!"

The grandmother did not speak though she followed the words he
read with strained attention.

It happened on the day following this that there was a reading
lesson in Peter's class. When it came to his turn, the teacher
said,—

"We must pass over Peter as usual, or will you try again once
more—I will not say to read, but to stammer through a
sentence."

Peter took the book and read off three lines without the
slightest hesitation.

The teacher put down his book and stared at Peter as at some out-
of-the-way and marvellous thing unseen before. At last he spoke,—

"Peter, some miracle has been performed upon you! Here have I
been striving with unheard-of patience to teach you and you have
not hitherto been able to say your letters even. And now, just
as I had made up my mind not to waste any more trouble upon you,
you suddenly are able to read a consecutive sentence properly and
distinctly. How has such a miracle come to pass in our days?"

"It was Heidi," answered Peter.

The teacher looked in astonishment towards Heidi, who was
sitting innocently on her bench with no appearance of anything
supernatural about her. He continued, "I have noticed a change
in you altogether, Peter. Whereas formerly you often missed
coming to school for a week, or even weeks at a time, you have
lately not stayed away a single day. Who has wrought this change
for good in you?"

"It was Uncle," answered Peter.

With increasing surprise the teacher looked from Peter to Heidi
and back again at Peter.

"We will try once more," he said cautiously, and Peter had again
to show off his accomplishment by reading another three lines.
There was no mistake about it—Peter could read. As soon as
school was over the teacher went over to the pastor to tell him
this piece of news, and to inform him of the happy result of
Heidi's and the grandfather's combined efforts.

Every evening Peter read one hymn aloud; so far he obeyed Heidi.
Nothing would induce him to read a second, and indeed the
grandmother never asked for it. His mother Brigitta could not
get over her surprise at her son's attainment, and when the
reader was in bed would often express her pleasure at it. "Now he
has learnt to read there is no knowing what may be made of him
yet."

On one of these occasions the grandmother answered, "Yes, it is
good for him to have learnt something, but I shall indeed be
thankful when spring is here again and Heidi can come; they are
not like the same hymns when Peter reads them. So many words
seem missing, and I try to think what they ought to be and then I
lose the sense, and so the hymns do not come home to my heart as
when Heidi reads them."

The truth was that Peter arranged to make his reading as little
troublesome for himself as possible. When he came upon a word
that he thought was too long or difficult in any other way, he
left it out, for he decided that a word or two less in a verse,
where there were so many of them, could make no difference to
his grandmother. And so it came about that most of the principal
words were missing in the hymns that Peter read aloud.

It was the month of May. From every height the full fresh
streams of spring were flowing down into the valley. The clear
warm sunshine lay upon the mountain, which had turned green
again. The last snows had disappeared and the sun had already
coaxed many of the flowers to show their bright heads above the
grass. Up above the gay young wind of spring was singing through
the fir trees, and shaking down the old dark needles to make room
for the new bright green ones that were soon to deck out the
trees in their spring finery. Higher up still the great bird went
circling round in the blue ether as of old, while the golden
sunshine lit up the grandfather's hut, and all the ground about
it was warm and dry again so that one might sit out where one
liked. Heidi was at home again on the mountain, running backwards
and forwards in her accustomed way, not knowing which spot was
most delightful. Now she stood still to listen to the deep,
mysterious voice of the wind, as it blew down to her from the
mountain summits, coming nearer and nearer and gathering strength
as it came, till it broke with force against the fir trees,
bending and shaking them, and seeming to shout for joy, so that
she too, though blown about like a feather, felt she must join in
the chorus of exulting sounds. Then she would run round again to
the sunny space in front of the hut, and seating herself on the
ground would peer closely into the short grass to see how many
little flower cups were open or thinking of opening. She rejoiced
with all the myriad little beetles and winged insects that jumped
and crawled and danced in the sun, and drew in deep draughts of
the spring scents that rose from the newly-awakened earth, and
thought the mountain was more beautiful than ever. All the tiny
living creatures must be as happy as she, for it seemed to her
there were little voices all round her singing and humming in
joyful tones, "On the mountain! on the mountain!"

From the shed at the back came the sound of sawing and chopping,
and Heidi listened to it with pleasure, for it was the old
familiar sound she had known from the beginning of her life up
here. Suddenly she jumped up and ran round, for she must know
what her grandfather was doing. In front of the shed door
already stood a finished new chair, and a second was in course of
construction under the grandfather's skilful hand.

"Oh, I know what these are for," exclaimed Heidi in great glee.
"We shall want them when they all come from Frankfurt. This one
is for Grandmamma, and the one you are now making is for Clara,
and then—then, there will, I suppose, have to be another,"
continued Heidi with more hesitation in her voice, "or do you
think, grandfather, that perhaps Fraulein Rottenmeier will not
come with them?"

"Well, I cannot say just yet," replied her grandfather, "but it
will be safer to make one so that we can offer her a seat if she
does."

Heidi looked thoughtfully at the plain wooden chair without arms
as if trying to imagine how Fraulein Rottenmeier and a chair of
this sort would suit one another. After a few minutes'
contemplation, "Grandfather," she said, shaking her head
doubtfully, "I don't think she would be able to sit on that."