Page:Heidi - Spyri - 1922.djvu/248

 Heidi had already taken her usual stand close to the grandmother.

“Have no fear, grandmother,” said Uncle, in a reassuring voice, “I shall not punish either you or myself by doing so. We are all together now, and pray God we may continue so for long.”

Brigitta now drew the Uncle aside towards a corner of the room and showed him the hat with the feathers, explaining to him how it came there, and adding that of course she could not take such a thing from a child.

But the grandfather looked towards Heidi without any displeasure of countenance and said, “The hat is hers, and if she does not wish to wear it any more she has a right to say so and to give it to you, so take it, pray.”

Brigitta was highly delighted at this. “It is well worth more than ten shillings!” she said as she held it up for further admiration. “And what a blessing Heidi has brought home with her from Frankfurt! I have thought sometimes that it might be good to send Peter there for a little while; what do you think, Uncle?”

A merry look came into the grandfather’s eye. He thought it would do Peter no harm, but he had better wait for a good opportunity before starting. At this moment the subject of their conversation himself rushed in, evidently in a great hurry, knocking his head violently against the door in his haste, so that everything in the room rattled. Gasping and breathless he stood still after this and held out a letter. This was another great event, for such a thing had never happened before; the letter was addressed to Heidi and had been delivered at the