‘Cheer up,’ he said, ‘don’t be downhearted. I’ve never seen you cry yet and I know you’re a sensible little girl. Later on, when Miss Rottenmeier’s out of the way, we’ll go and look at the kittens, shall we? They’re having a fine time up in the attic and it’s fun to watch them playing together.’
Heidi gave a subdued little nod and went to her room, leaving him looking after her with real kindliness.
At supper Miss Rottenmeier hardly spoke, but every now and then she glanced sharply at Heidi as though expecting her to do something unheard‐of at any moment. But the little girl sat as quiet as a mouse, eating and drinking nothing, though she managed to put her roll in her pocket as usual.
Next morning, when Mr Usher arrived, Miss Rotten‐meier beckoned him mysteriously into the dining‐room and told him she feared the change of air and the new way of life, with all its unusual experiences, had affected Heidi’s mind. She told him how the child had tried to run away and repeated the extraordinary things she had said. Mr Usher tried to calm her.
‘I assure you,’ he said, ‘that although in some ways Adelheid is rather peculiar, in others she seems quite normal and it should be possible, with careful treatment, to steady her quite satisfactorily in the end. I am really more worried by the fact that she seems to find such difficulty in learning the alphabet. So far we have made no progress at all.’
Miss Rottenmeier felt somehow satisfied by that and let him go to his pupils. Later in the day she remembered the strange garments Heidi had put on to go home in, and decided she ought to give her some of Clara’s outgrown clothes before Mr Sesemann came home. She spoke to Clara about it and she agreed at once that Heidi could have several of her dresses, hats, and other garments. So Miss Rottenmeier went off to Heidi’s room to look at her clothes and decide what was worth keeping and what should be thrown away. In a few minutes she returned, looking more put out than ever.
‘Adelheid’ she cried, ‘what do I find in your wardrobe? Can I believe my eyes? Just think of it, Clara, at the bottom of the cupboard — a cupboard meant for clothes, Adelheid — I found a great pile of stale dry rolls. Fancy hoarding food away like that!’ Then she raised her voice and called Tinette. ‘Go to Miss Adelheid’s room,’ she told her, ‘and get rid of the rolls in the cupboard, and throw the old straw hat that’s on the table into the dustbin!’
‘Oh, no,’ Heidi wailed, starting up, ‘I must keep my hat, and the rolls are for Grannie.’ She tried to run after Tinette but Miss Rottenmeier caught hold of her.
‘You’ll stay here. That rubbish is going to be thrown away,’ she said firmly.
Heidi threw herself down beside Clara’s chair and began to cry bitterly. ‘Now Grannie won’t get any nice white bread,’ she sobbed. ‘The rolls were all for her and now they’re going to be thrown away.’ She wept as if her heart would break, and Miss Rottenmeier hurried out of the room. Clara was very upset by all the commotion.
‘Heidi, don’t cry so,’ she begged. ‘Listen to me. If you’ll only stop, I promise to get you just as many rolls as you had saved, or even more, to take to Grannie when you go home. And they’ll be soft, fresh ones. Those you’d saved must have got quite hard already. Come on, Heidi, please don’t cry any more.’
It was a long time before Heidi could stop, but she understood what Clara was promising and was comforted at last, though she still wanted to be assured that Clara meant it.
‘Will you really give me as many rolls as I had saved?’ she asked in a still tearful voice.
‘Of course I will. Now do cheer up.’
Heidi came to supper that night with red eyes, and when she saw the roll beside her plate, a lump came in her throat. But she managed not to cry for she knew that would not do at table. Sebastian kept making strange signs whenever he came near her, pointing first to his head, then to hers, nodding and winking as he did so, as though to convey to her something very secret, and when she went to bed she found her battered old straw hat under the quilt. She caught it up and squashed it a little more in her pleasure at seeing it again. Then she wrapped it up in a big old handkerchief and hid it right at the back of the wardrobe.
That was what Sebastian had been trying to tell her at supper. He had heard what Tinette had been told to do, and had heard Heidi’s despairing cry. So he had gone after the girl and waited till she came out of Heidi’s room carrying the hoard of rolls, with the hat perched on top of them. He had snatched away the hat, saying, ‘I’ll get rid of this,’ and so had been able to save it.
9
A Bad Report to Mr Sesemann
There was a great bustle in the big house and much running up and down stairs a few days later, for the master had returned from his travels, and Sebastian and Tinette had one load of luggage after another to carry up from the carriage, for Mr Sesemann always brought a lot of presents and other nice things home with him.
The first thing he did was to go and find his daughter, and there was Heidi with her, for it was the late afternoon, when they were always together. Father and daughter were very fond of one another and they greeted each other very warmly. Then he put out a hand to Heidi, who had moved quietly away into a corner, and said kindly:
‘So this is our little Swiss girl. Come and shake hands. That’s right. And tell me, are you and Clara good friends? I hope you don’t squabble, so that you have to kiss and make it up and then start the whole performance again.’
‘No, Clara is always good to me,’ said Heidi.
‘And Heidi never quarrels with me,’ added Clara.
‘I’m glad to hear that,’ said her father. ‘And now, my dear, you must forgive me if I leave you. I haven’t had anything to eat all day. But I’ll come back later on and you shall see all that I’ve brought for you.’
He went along to the dining‐room, where Miss Rotten‐meier was making sure that everything was in order. There he sat down and she took a seat opposite him, with a face like a thundercloud.
‘What’s the matter?’ he asked. ‘Why this gloomy expression to welcome me home, when Clara seems in such good spirits?’
‘Mr Sesemann,’ she began pompously, ‘we have all been dreadfully deceived, Clara not least of us.’
‘Indeed?’ he returned calmly, sipping his wine.
‘You remember we agreed that Clara should have a young companion to live with her? Knowing how careful you are that she should only have about her well behaved, nicely brought up people, I thought a young Swiss girl from the mountains would be suitable. I’ve often read of these girls, who float through the world like a breath of pure Alpine air; almost, as it were, without touching the ground.’
‘I think even Swiss children must put their feet on the ground if they want to get anywhere,’ remarked Mr Sesemann drily, ‘otherwise they’d have been given wings.’
‘Oh, that’s not what I meant,’ she cried. ‘You know a real child of nature, hardly touched by this world at all.’
‘I don’t quite see what use that would be to Clara,’ observed Clara’s father.
‘I’m serious, Mr Sesemann. I have been disgracefully imposed upon!’
‘What’s disgraceful about it? I see nothing in the child herself to be so upset about.’
‘You should see the sort of people and animals she has been bringing into the house. Mr Usher will bear me out about that. And that’s not all.’
‘I don’t understand you,’ he said. But now Miss Rotten‐meier saw that she had his attention.
‘I don’t wonder. Her conduct in general has been almost past belief. I can only think she’s not quite right in the head.’
Mr Sesemann had not taken her earlier complaints seriously, but this was another matter and, if true, Clara might come to some harm. He looked at the woman as though wondering whether she herself was quite right in the head, and at that moment the door opened and Mr Usher was announced.