‘Grandfather said they were feeling like I did in Frankfurt,’ she told him, ‘because they’d never left the high pasture before, and you don’t know what that’s like, Peter.’
Peter hadn’t been listening properly. He was deep in thought and he didn’t say a word until they reached the cottage, then he announced gloomily, ‘I’d rather go to school than have Uncle do what he said.’ Heidi thought he was quite right, and said so.
They found Bridget alone, mending. ‘Grannie’s in bed,’ she told them. ‘She isn’t very well, and feels the cold badly.’
This was something new in Heidi’s experience. She had always before found Grannie in her corner seat. She ran quickly into the next room, where the old woman lay on her narrow bed, covered with only a single thin blanket, but wrapped in her warm grey shawl.
‘Thank God,’ said Grannie, as she heard Heidi’s step. All through the autumn she had been worrying secretly during the time when Heidi had not been able to visit her, for Peter had told her all about the visitor from Frankfurt, who had spent so much time with Heidi, and she had been sure he must be going to take her away. Even after he had gone back, she still expected to see someone come from Frankfurt and carry her off.
‘Are you very ill, Grannie?’ asked Heidi, standing close beside her.
‘No, no,’ said the old woman, stroking her fondly. ‘It’s only the frost which has got into my old bones.’
‘Will you be well when it turns warm again?’ Heidi persisted anxiously.
‘Oh, I’ll be back at my spinning‐wheel long before that, God willing,’ Grannie assured her. ‘I really meant to get up today, and I’ll be all right again tomorrow I’m sure.’
Heidi looked relieved, and as her bright eyes took more in, she remarked, ‘In Frankfurt, people put on a shawl when they go for a walk. Did you think it was meant to wear in bed, Grannie?’
‘I put it on to keep me warm,’ Grannie replied. ‘My blanket’s rather thin, and I’m thankful to have it.’
‘Your bed slopes down at the head instead of up,’ Heidi next observed. ‘That’s not right.’
‘I know, child,’ said Grannie. ‘It’s not very comfortable,’ and she tried to find a soft place for her head on the pillow, which was not much better than a piece of wood. ‘It was never very thick, and my old head, resting on it for so many years, has worn it thinner still.’
‘I wish I’d asked Clara if I could bring the bed I had at Frankfurt with me. It had three fat pillows, one on top of the other, and I kept slipping down the bed, away from them — but I had to get back on them again before morning because that was the proper way to go to sleep in. Would you be able to sleep like that?’
‘Yes, indeed, it would be very cosy. It’s easier to breathe, well propped up with pillows,’ Grannie sighed, trying to raise her head a little. ‘But we won’t talk about that. I’ve so much to be thankful for, more than many old sick people — the lovely rolls every day, this fine warm shawl, and now you to visit me. Will you read to me today?’
Heidi fetched the old book and read her several hymns. They were all familiar ones, and she enjoyed the sound of them afresh after the long interval. Grannie lay with her hands folded, and a happy look spread over her thin old face. Suddenly Heidi stopped reading to ask, ‘Are you better now, Grannie?’
‘Yes, that’s done me a lot of good, my dear. Please go on.’
Heidi did so and when she came to the last verse of the hymn, Grannie repeated it several times.
She found the words very comforting, and Heidi liked them too, for they made her think of that sunny day when she had come back to the mountains. ‘I know how lovely it is to get home,’ she exclaimed.
Soon after that she got up to go, for it was getting dark. ‘I’m so glad you’re better,’ she said, as Grannie took her hand and held it tight.
‘Yes, I’m happier now. Even if I have to go on lying here, I shan’t worry any more. You don’t know what it means to lie for days on end in darkness, and most of the time in silence. Sometimes I’m ready to give up, knowing I shall never see the sunshine again. But when you come and read me these wonderful words, my heart looks up again, and I’m comforted.’
Heidi said goodnight then and went outside with Peter. The moon shining on the snow made it as light as day. Peter got on his sleigh, with Heidi behind him, and they skimmed down the hill like a couple of birds.
Lying in her comfortable bed behind the stove that night, Heidi thought about Grannie’s poor thin pillow, and how much good the hymns had done her. If she could go and read to her every day, Grannie might get better, but it would probably be a week or even longer before she could go up again. She wondered what could be done about it, then suddenly had an idea which pleased her so much she could hardly wait for morning, to carry it out. She had been so occupied with these things that she had forgotten her prayers, and now she never finished a day without them. So she sat up and prayed for Grannie and Grandfather, as well as for herself. After that she lay back on the soft hay and slept soundly till morning.
19
Peter Surprises Everyone
Next day Peter went to school, and arrived punctually, bringing his midday meal with him in his little satchel. The Dörfli children went home in the middle of the day for dinner, but those who lived too far away used to sit on the desks, with their feet on the benches, holding what they had brought with them on their laps. Afterwards they could do as they liked until one o’clock, when lessons started again.
Peter always went over to Uncle Alp’s to see Heidi after he had been to school and that day she had been looking out for him eagerly, and ran to him as soon as he came inside the door.
‘I’ve thought of something,’ she cried in great excitement.
‘What?’ he asked.
‘You must learn to read.’
‘I have learned,’ Peter replied.
‘I mean learn properly, so that you can read anything,’ she insisted.
‘Can’t be done,’ Peter replied promptly.
‘I don’t believe that any more,’ she told him squarely, ‘and nor does anyone else. Clara’s Grandmamma told me it wasn’t so and she was right.’
Peter looked rather taken aback at the Frankfurt lady being brought into it.
‘I’ll teach you,’ Heidi went on, ‘I know how. Then you can read a hymn to Grannie every day.’
‘Not me,’ growled Peter.
This refusal to help her to carry out the plan on which she had set her heart annoyed Heidi. Her black eyes flashed as she said threateningly, ‘I’ll tell you what will happen to you if you won’t learn. You’ll have to go to Frankfurt, like your mother said, and I know what the school there is like. Clara pointed out the great big building one day when we were out for a drive. And the boys stay there until they’re grown up. I’ve seen them myself. And you needn’t expect just one kind teacher there, like we have here. There are lots of teachers, all dressed in black as if they were going to church, and they wear tall black hats like this,’ and she measured their height from the ground with her hand. Peter felt as though a cold wind had blown down his back.
‘You’d be there with all those gentlemen,’ she continued, quite carried away, ‘and when it came to your turn, you wouldn’t be able to read, nor even say your letters properly. Then they’d all make fun of you, and that would be worse than Tinette, and she was bad enough.’