Heidi | Page 9

bright new piece of
money to him that sparkled in the sun. Peter was immediately up and
off down the steep mountain side, taking the shortest cut, and in an
incredibly short space of time had reached the little heap of clothes,
which he gathered up under his arm, and was back again so quickly that
even Dete was obliged to give him a word of praise as she handed him
the promised money. Peter promptly thrust it into his pocket and his
face beamed with delight, for it was not often that he was the happy
possessor of such riches.
You can carry the things up for me as far as Uncle's, as you are going
the same way," went on Dete, who was preparing to continue her climb
up the mountain side, which rose in a steep ascent immediately behind
the goatherd's hut. Peter willingly undertook to do this, and followed
after her on his bare feet, with his left arm round the bundle and the
right swinging his goatherd's stick, while Heidi and the goats went
skipping and jumping joyfully beside him. After a climb of more than
three-quarters of an hour they reached the top of the Alm mountain.
Uncle's hut stood on a projection of the rock, exposed indeed to the
winds, but where every ray of sun could rest upon it, and a full view
could be had of the valley beneath. Behind the hut stood three old fir
trees, with long, thick, unlopped branches. Beyond these rose a further
wall of mountain, the lower heights still overgrown with beautiful grass
and plants, above which were stonier slopes, covered only with scrub,
that led gradually up to the steep, bare rocky summits.
Against the hut, on the side looking towards the valley, Uncle had put
up a seat. Here he was sitting, his pipe in his mouth and his hands on
his knees, quietly looking out, when the children, the goats and Cousin
Dete suddenly clambered into view. Heidi was at the top first. She went
straight up to the old man, put out her hand, and said, "Good-evening,

Grandfather."
"So, so, what is the meaning of this?" he asked gruffly, as he gave the
child an abrupt shake of the hand, and gazed long and scrutinisingly at
her from under his bushy eyebrows. Heidi stared steadily back at him
in return with unflinching gaze, for the grandfather, with his long beard
and thick grey eyebrows that grew together over his nose and looked
just like a bush, was such a remarkable appearance, that Heidi was
unable to take her eyes off him. Meanwhile Dete had come up, with
Peter after her, and the latter now stood still a while to watch what was
going on.
"I wish you good-day, Uncle," said Dete, as she walked towards him,
"and I have brought you Tobias and Adelaide's child. You will hardly
recognise her, as you have never seen her since she was a year old."
"And what has the child to do with me up here?" asked the old man
curtly. "You there," he then called out to Peter, "be off with your goats,
you are none too early as it is, and take mine with you."
Peter obeyed on the instant and quickly disappeared, for the old man
had given him a look that made him feel that he did not want to stay
any longer.
"The child is here to remain with you," Dete made answer. "I have, I
think, done my duty by her for these four years, and now it is time for
you to do yours."
"That's it, is it?" said the old man, as he looked at her with a flash in his
eye. "And when the child begins to fret and whine after you, as is the
way with these unreasonable little beings, what am I to do with her
then?"
"That's your affair," retorted Dete. "I know I had to put up with her
without complaint when she was left on my hands as an infant, and
with enough to do as it was for my mother and self. Now I have to go
and look after my own earnings, and you are the next of kin to the child.
If you cannot arrange to keep her, do with her as you like. You will be

answerable for the result if harm happens to her, though you have
hardly need, I should think, to add to the burden already on your
conscience."
Now Dete was not quite easy in her own conscience about what she
was doing, and consequently was feeling hot and irritable, and said
more than she had intended. As she uttered her last words, Uncle rose
from his seat. He looked at her in a way