HEIDI

_by_ JOHANNA SPYRI

About the Author

This book is called "Heidi." It was written by a woman named Johanna Spyri. She lived in Switzerland, a country with tall mountains.

Johanna was born in 1827. She did not write books when she was young. She got married to a man named Advocate Spyri. Later, a war happened. Johanna wrote a book to help raise money for people hurt by the war. That book did very well. After that, she kept writing books. She died in 1891.

People all over the world love her books. Johanna wrote about the mountains and places she knew well. She wanted children to be happy and be themselves. She did not like it when grown-ups were too strict, or too soft, with kids. Both can hurt a child's happy growing-up.

Johanna wrote many other books too, with titles like "Arthur and His Squirrel" and "Uncle Titus."

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CHAPTER I

HEIDI'S FIRST MOUNTAIN CLIMB

It was a sunny morning in June. Two people were walking up a narrow mountain path. One was a tall girl. The other was a little child. They were climbing up from a village called Mayenfeld. They were headed to the top of the Alm mountain.

It was hot outside. But the little girl wore thick clothes, like it was freezing cold! She looked about five years old. It was hard to tell what she really looked like under all her clothes. She wore two dresses, one on top of the other. Over both dresses, she wore a heavy red wool shawl (a big cloth wrap). On her feet were thick mountain boots with nails in the bottom, made for walking on rocky paths.

The two travelers reached a small town called Doerfli. This town was halfway up the mountain. Many people said hello here, because the tall girl used to live in this town.

As they were leaving town, someone called out, "Wait, Dete! If you're going up the mountain, I'll come too!"

Dete stopped walking. The little girl let go of Dete's hand and sat down on the ground.

"Are you tired, Heidi?" Dete asked the little girl.

"No, I'm hot," said Heidi.

"We'll be at the top soon," Dete said. "Just walk a little longer. Take big steps. We'll be there in one more hour."

A friendly, heavy-set woman caught up to them. She walked next to Dete.

"Where are you taking the child?" the woman asked. "Is this your sister's little girl?"

"Yes," Dete answered. "I'm taking her up to Uncle's house. She has to live there now."

"What? This child, living with Alm-Uncle?" said the woman. "Dete, are you crazy? That old man will send you both right back down the mountain!"

"He can't do that," Dete said. "He's her grandfather. He has to take care of her. I've taken care of her long enough. Now I have a chance for a good job, and I'm not going to miss it because of her."

"That would be fine if he were like other people," the woman, named Barbel, said. "But you know how he is! How can he take care of a little child? But where are you going?"

"To a city called Frankfurt," Dete said. "I have a good job waiting for me there."

"I feel sorry for that little girl," Barbel said. "Nobody up there knows anything about that old man. He won't talk to anyone. He never goes to church. When he does come down the mountain, everyone stays away from him. Just looking at him is scary, with his bushy grey eyebrows and huge beard! People say all kinds of things about him. Dete, you must know more, since your sister used to know him."

"Yes, but I won't repeat what I heard," Dete said. "If it got back to him, I'd be in big trouble."

Barbel took Dete's arm. "Please, just tell me what happened to him. Was he always so grumpy? I promise I won't tell anyone."

"Fine, I'll tell you. But wait a second," Dete said. She looked around for Heidi, who had wandered off without anyone noticing.

"There she is!" Barbel said, pointing far away from the path. "She's climbing up there with Peter and his goats. Now, tell me — did the old man always just have his hut and his two goats?"

"Oh, no!" Dete said. "He used to own one of the biggest farms around, in a place called Domleschg, where our mother used to live. But he drank too much and gambled away all his money and land. When his own mother and father found out, they were so sad that they both died, one right after the other. Uncle had nothing left but a bad reputation. He left town. People heard he became a soldier in a place called Naples.

"About twelve or fifteen years later, he came back to Domleschg. He brought a young son with him. He tried to leave the boy with family members there. But nobody would help him — everyone shut their doors on him. This made Uncle so angry that he swore he would never go back to Domleschg again. He moved to Doerfli with his little boy instead. His wife had died right after the baby was born. Uncle must have saved some money, because he paid for his son, named Tobias, to learn woodworking from a carpenter. Tobias grew up to be a good, steady young man, and everyone in Doerfli liked him. But people still didn't trust his father. Some people even said Uncle had once killed a man in a fight, back in Naples."

"Why does everyone call him 'Uncle'?" Barbel asked. "He can't really be everyone's uncle!"

"Our grandmothers were related to each other," Dete explained. "So I always called him Uncle. My father knew a lot of people in Doerfli too. Soon, everybody in town just started calling him Uncle."

"What happened to Tobias?" Barbel asked, very interested now.

"Tobias learned his woodworking trade in a town called Mels," Dete said. "When he finished learning, he came back to Doerfli. He married my sister, Adelaide! But they weren't happy for long. Just two years after they got married, Tobias died in an accident. Adelaide was so sad that she got very sick with a fever. She never got better. She had always been a bit weak and sickly, even before this. Sometimes she would fall into strange states where you couldn't tell if she was awake or asleep. Two months after Tobias died, Adelaide died too.

"Everyone in town talked about how sad this all was. Many people said it was punishment for the bad way Uncle had lived his life. Our minister tried to talk to Uncle, to help him feel sorry for his past. But this only made Uncle angrier and more stubborn. He stopped talking to everyone. Then one day, we heard he had moved up to the Alm mountain, and that he wasn't coming back down. He's lived alone up there ever since. Now everyone calls him Alm-Uncle.

"My mother and I took care of Adelaide's baby — that's Heidi — when she was just one year old. When my mother died last year, I went to work at some hot springs to earn money. I paid an old woman named Ursel to take care of Heidi. So you see, I've done my part. Now it's Uncle's turn to help. But Barbel, where are you headed?"

"This is where I get off," Barbel said. "I need to see Peter's mother — she's spinning wool for me. Goodbye, Dete! Good luck to you!"

Barbel walked toward a small, dark brown hut. It sat a little ways off the path, tucked into a low spot that kept it safe from the mountain wind.

This was where Peter lived. Peter was an eleven-year-old boy. He lived with his mother, Brigitta, and his grandmother, who was blind. Everyone, young and old, just called her "Grandmother."

Every morning, Peter walked down to Doerfli. He gathered a group of goats and led them up the mountain, so they could eat grass and plants. At sunset, he led the goats back down the mountain again. When he reached Doerfli, he would give a loud whistle. Then all the goat owners would come out and take their animals home.

Dete had been standing and looking around for a good ten minutes. She was looking for Heidi and the goats. But Heidi and Peter had taken a long way around, because Peter knew all the best spots where good plants grew for his goats to eat. Heidi was hot and tired from her thick, heavy clothes...