Heidi

Part One · Grandfather's Mountain

On a sunny morning in June, a tall young woman named Dete was climbing the steep mountain path above the little Swiss village of Dörfli, pulling a small girl by the hand. The girl was Heidi. She was five years old and an orphan, and her aunt Dete was taking her to live with her grandfather. Heidi was so hot in the two dresses, the thick red scarf and the heavy boots her aunt had made her wear that she finally pulled them all off and scampered up the meadow in her petticoat, as light and happy as a young goat.

Grandfather lived alone in a wooden hut high on the Alp, with three old fir trees roaring above it in the wind. The villagers were frightened of him, because he scowled at everybody and never came down to church. "The child is your responsibility now," Dete announced, and she hurried away down the mountain. Grandfather leaned on his stick and stared at Heidi for a long time. Heidi stared back at him, and then she asked politely if she might see what was inside the hut. Grandfather was so surprised that he forgot to scowl.

Inside there was a single room, with a table, a chair, a cupboard and a ladder leading up to a hayloft, and Heidi immediately climbed up to investigate. The loft was full of fresh, sweet-smelling hay, and through a round window she could look far down into the valley. "I want to sleep up here!" she cried, and Grandfather made her a soft bed of hay with a linen sheet. For supper he toasted a big piece of golden cheese on a long iron fork over the fire, and he gave her a bowl of creamy milk from his goat, Little Swan. Heidi decided it was absolutely the most delicious supper in the entire world.

Early every morning, Peter the goatherd came whistling up the path with all the village goats, and Heidi went with him to the high pasture. There were flowers everywhere, blue and gold and pink, nodding in the sunshine, and an enormous eagle circled overhead, screeching. Heidi learned the name of every goat, from proud Great Turk to tiny Snowflake, who bleated pitifully when she lost her mother. One evening, as the sun went down, the snowy peaks and the rocks turned a fiery rosy red. "Peter, Peter, the mountains are on fire!" Heidi shouted. Peter only laughed. "It always does that," he said. "But it isn't fire."

Peter lived lower down the mountain with his mother and his blind grandmother, in a tiny cottage that rattled and creaked in every wind. The old grandmother was afraid that one stormy night it would fall to pieces on top of them. Heidi held her wrinkled hands and listened to her worries, and then she ran home and begged Grandfather to help. The next day, without saying a word, Grandfather climbed down with a hammer and a bag of nails, and he mended the loose shutters and boards. Heidi visited the grandmother whenever she could, and the old woman said that Heidi made her dark days bright.

Part Two · The City

Heidi lived happily on the mountain for three years. Then, one day, Aunt Dete came puffing up the path again, dressed in a fancy hat. A rich family in the city of Frankfurt needed a companion for their daughter, Clara, who was sick and could not walk. "It's a marvelous opportunity," declared Dete. Grandfather was furious, and Heidi didn't want to go, but Dete promised that she could come back whenever she liked. So Heidi was hurried away, down the mountain and onto a long, rattling train, to a tall, gloomy house on a busy city street.

Clara Sesemann was twelve, pale and gentle, and she spent her days in a wheelchair. She liked Heidi straightaway. But the housekeeper, Miss Rottenmeier, was stiff and strict, and Heidi could never do anything correctly. She called the butler "sir," she brought home a basket of kittens, and she hid the soft white rolls from every dinner in her cupboard to carry home to Peter's grandmother. One day she climbed the church tower, hoping to see the mountains, but all she could see was an endless sea of chimneys and rooftops. Heidi grew quiet and thin, and she cried into her pillow every night.

The one bright spot was Clara's grandmother, who came to stay for a while. She was kind and wise, and she gave Heidi a beautiful picture book about a shepherd and his sheep. Heidi had always believed that reading was impossibly difficult, but she was so desperate to discover the shepherd's story that she practiced tirelessly, and soon she could read every word. Grandmamma taught her to say her prayers, too, and to trust that good things would come in time. But even so, Heidi kept on longing for the mountains, and after Grandmamma left, she grew sadder than ever.

Then mysterious things began to happen in the Sesemann household. Every morning the front door was discovered standing wide open, although it had been locked and bolted the previous evening. The terrified servants whispered that the house was haunted, and they refused to go upstairs alone. At last Mr. Sesemann and his friend the doctor sat up all night to watch. At midnight they observed a small white figure at the door. It was Heidi, walking in her sleep, dreaming that she was home on the mountain. "This child is so homesick that she is making herself ill," said the doctor. "She must go home tomorrow."

Part Three · Home Again

Heidi raced up the mountain path so fast that her heart was pounding. Grandfather was sitting on the bench outside his hut, and when he saw her coming, his eyes filled with tears, and he hugged her as if he would never let go. That evening the mountains glowed red again in the sunset, and Heidi watched them with joy. She had brought a whole bag of soft white rolls for Peter's grandmother. Best of all, now she could read, so she read the old woman's favorite hymns aloud to her. "Now the days are bright again," the grandmother said happily.

One Sunday morning, Grandfather took out his best coat with the silver buttons, and he walked down to the village church holding Heidi's hand. Everybody stared at the gruff old man in astonishment. After the service, Grandfather shook hands with the pastor and told him that he wanted to be friends with his neighbors again. From then on, the villagers greeted him kindly whenever he came down. That winter, when the snow piled high on the Alp, Grandfather and Heidi lived in an old house in Dörfli, so that Heidi could go to school with Peter and teach him to read.

Part Four · Clara Walks

In the spring, a letter came from Frankfurt. Clara was coming to visit! She arrived in early summer, carried up the mountain in a chair, with her grandmother riding on a horse behind her. Clara could hardly believe how beautiful everything was. She loved the creamy goat's milk, the glowing sunsets and the starry nights in the hayloft, and her cheeks grew rosy. Every day Grandfather lifted her from her wheelchair and helped her try to stand, just for a moment. But Peter was jealous, because now Heidi spent all her time with Clara and never came to the pasture with him.

One morning, before anyone else was awake, Peter saw the empty wheelchair standing outside the hut. In a sudden jealous rage, he gave it a tremendous push. It rolled faster and faster down the steep slope, crashed over the rocks, and shattered into a hundred pieces. Peter ran off with his heart thumping. When everyone saw what had happened, they were dismayed. How could Clara get around now? But Grandfather simply carried her up to the high pasture, so that she could finally see the flowers that Heidi had told her so much about.

Up in the pasture, Clara longed to see the brilliant flowers growing higher on the slope. "Lean on us," said Heidi, and she and Peter held Clara on both sides. Clara put one foot down, and then the other. Her knees trembled dreadfully, but she managed a step, and then another, and then another. "Heidi, I can do it!" she cried. "I'm walking!" Every day afterward she practiced, and every day she grew stronger. Peter felt terribly ashamed, because he had wanted to send Clara away, and instead his wicked push had helped her to walk.

When Grandmamma came riding up the mountain, she could not believe her eyes. Clara was walking toward her across the meadow, leaning only a little on Heidi's arm. Grandmamma laughed and cried at the same time, and when Mr. Sesemann arrived, he hugged his daughter as if she had come back from far away. Peter confessed what he had done, and everyone forgave him. Then Grandmamma promised that Heidi would always have a home with Grandfather on the mountain. And every summer after that, Clara came back to the Alp, to the goats and the flowers and the mountains that glowed like fire.