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 He went like lightning, and when he reached Dörfli, which stood on the direct road to Mayenfeld, he made up his mind to go on further, for he was sure he could not stop his rapid descent without hurting himself and the sleigh too. So down he still went till he reached the level ground, where the sleigh came to a pause of its own accord. Then he got out and looked round. The impetus with which he had made his journey down had carried him some little way beyond Mayenfeld. He be-thought himself that it was too late to get to school now, as lessons would already have begun, and it would take him a good hour to walk back to Dörfli. So he might take his time about returning, which he did, and reached Dörfli just as Heidi had got home from school and was sitting at dinner with her grandfather. Peter walked in, and as on this occasion he had something particular to communicate, he began without a pause, exclaiming as he stood still in the middle of the room, “She’s got it now.”

“Got it? what?” asked the Uncle. “Your words sound quite warlike, general.”

“The frost,” explained Peter.

“Oh! then now I can go and see grandmother!” said Heidi joyfully, for she had understood Peter’s words at once. “But why were you not at school then? You could have come down in the sleigh,” she added reproachfully, for it did not agree with Heidi’s ideas of good behavior to stay away when it was possible to be there.

“It carried me on too far and I was too late,” Peter replied.

“I call that being a deserter,” said the Uncle, “and deserters get their ears pulled, as you know.”