Page:Heidi - Spyri - 1922.djvu/322

 finished his bread and cheese at mid-day and was searching in the bag for any last crumbs did he remember the letter which lay at the bottom.

Heidi read the address carefully; then she ran back to the shed holding out her letter to her grandfather in high glee. “From Frankfurt! from Clara! Would you like to hear it?”

The grandfather was ready and pleased to do so, as also Peter, who had followed Heidi into the shed. He leant his back against the door post, as he felt he could follow Heidi’s reading better if firmly supported from behind, and so stood prepared to listen.

“Dearest Heidi,—Everything is packed and we shall start now in two or three days, as soon as papa himself is ready to leave; he is not coming with us, as he has first to go to Paris. The doctor comes every day, and as soon as he is inside the door, he cries, ‘Off now as quickly as you can, off to the mountain.’ He is most impatient about our going. You cannot think how much he enjoyed himself when he was with you! He has called nearly every day this winter, and each time he has come into my room and said he must tell me about everything again. And then he sits down and describes all he did with you and the grandfather, and talks of the mountains and the flowers and of the great silence up there far above all towns and the villages, and of the fresh delicious air, and often adds, ‘No one can help getting well up there.’ He himself is quite a different man since his visit, and looks quite young again and happy, which he had not been for a long time before. Oh,