Heidi: Chapters 1–2

From it a footpath leads through green, well-wooded stretches to the foot of the heights which look down imposingly upon the valley.

Where the footpath begins to go steeply and abruptly up the Alps, the heath, with its short grass and pungent herbage, at once sends out its soft perfume to meet the wayfarer.

Where the footpath begins to go steeply and abruptly up the Alps, the heath, with its short grass and pungent herbage, at once sends out its soft perfume to meet the wayfarer.

Where the footpath begins to go steeply and abruptly up the Alps, the heath, with its short grass and pungent herbage, at once sends out its soft perfume to meet the wayfarer.

With her feet encased in heavy hob-nailed boots, this hot and shapeless little person toiled up the mountain.

The pair had been climbing for about an hour when they reached a hamlet half-way up the great mountain named the Alm.

But, answering questions and calls as she went by, the girl did not loiter on her way and only stood still when she reached the end of the hamlet.

"Why not? As he's her grandfather, it is high time he should do something for the child. 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. People get out of his way when he appears once in a twelve-month down here among us. We all fear him and he is really just like a heathen or an old Indian, with those thick grey eyebrows and that huge uncanny beard. When he wanders along the road with his twisted stick we are all afraid to meet him alone."

"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. People get out of his way when he appears once in a twelve-month down here among us. We all fear him and he is really just like a heathen or an old Indian, with those thick grey eyebrows and that huge uncanny beard. When he wanders along the road with his twisted stick we are all afraid to meet him alone."

Deta had been bred there, but since her mother's death had gone away to earn her livelihood.

While the two young women had talked at such a rate, they had not noticed her absence; quite a while must have elapsed since the little girl had given up following her companions.

People said that heaven had punished the uncle for his misdeeds.

Suddenly he moved up to the Alp, to live there at enmity with God and man.

"And now you want to hand over the child to this terrible old man. I really wonder how you can do it, Deta!" said Barbara with reproach in her voice.

Had it been exposed to the tempests, it would have been a doubtful habitation in the state of decay it was in.

If the hut had stood on the Alm top, the wind would have blown it down the valley without much ado when the storm season came.

At home lived his mother and an old blind grandmother, but he only spent enough time in the hut to swallow his bread and milk for breakfast and the same repast for supper.

As she could not find them anywhere, she climbed up a little higher to get a better view down the valley from there, and peered from side to side with marks of great impatience on her countenance.

She was so hot and uncomfortable that she only climbed by exerting all her strength.

In sheer delight at the relief, she threw up her dimpled arms, that were bare up to her short sleeves.

The child, feeling free and comfortable, started to converse with Peter, and he had to answer many questions.

When Deta saw the little party of climbers she cried out shrilly: "Heidi, what have you done? What a sight you are! Where are your dresses and your shawl? Are the new shoes gone that I just bought for you, and the new stockings that I made myself? Where are they all, Heidi?"

The aunt followed the direction of her finger and descried a little heap with a small red dot in the middle, which she recognized as the shawl.

"Because I do not need them," said the child, not seeming in the least repentant of her deed.

"How can you be so stupid, Heidi? Have you lost your senses?" the aunt went on, in a tone of mingled vexation and reproach.

He did not often get such a treasure, and therefore his face was beaming and he laughingly dropped the money deep into his pocket.

After three quarters of an hour they reached the height where the hut of the old man stood on a prominent rock, exposed to every wind, but bathed in the full sunlight.

"You'll have to look out for that!" Deta retorted.

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!"

Across the room a large kettle was suspended over the hearth, and opposite to it a large door was sunk into the wall.

In this cupboard the grandfather kept everything that he needed for his subsistence.

It somewhat resembled a sheet, and with this he climbed up to the loft.

That did not perplex Heidi though, for she saw two glasses standing behind.

Heidi tenderly caressed first one and then the other, seeming beside herself with joy.