Page:Heidi - Spyri - 1922.djvu/247

 was the most beloved person in all Dörfli, and that they had hardly known how to live without him. Most of his friends accompanied him and Heidi some way up the mountain, and each as they bid him good-bye made him promise that when he next came down he would without fail come and call. As the old man at last stood alone with the child, watching their retreating figures, there was a light upon his face as if reflected from some inner sunshine of heart. Heidi, looking up at him with her clear, steady eyes, said, “Grandfather, you look nicer and nicer to-day, I never saw you quite like that before.”

“Do you think so?” he answered with a smile. “Well, yes, Heidi, I am happier to-day than I deserve, happier than I had thought possible; it is good to be at peace with God and man! God was good to me when He sent you to my hut.”

When they reached Peter’s home the grandfather opened the door and walked straight in. “Good-morning, grandmother,” he said. “I think we shall have to do some more patching up before the autumn winds come.”

“Dear God, if it is not Uncle!” cried the grandmother in pleased surprise. “That I should live to see such a thing! and now I can thank you for all that you have done for me. May God reward you! may God reward you!” She stretched out a trembling hand to him, and when the grandfather shook it warmly, she went on, still holding his, “And I have something on my heart I want to say, a prayer to make to you! If I have injured you in any way, do not punish me by sending the child away again before I lie under the grass. Oh, you do not know what that child is to me!” and she clasped the child to her, for