Page:Heidi - Spyri - 1922.djvu/88

 the mountain after him, he feared that if the child sat in it alone her wrappings would fall off and that she would be nearly if not quite frozen, so he carried her warm and safe in his arms.

So the winter went by. After many years of joyless life, the blind grandmother had at last found something to make her happy; her days were no longer passed in weariness and darkness, one like the other without pleasure or change, for now she had always something to which she could look forward. She listened for the little tripping footstep as soon as day had come, and when she heard the door open and knew the child was really there, she would call out, “God be thanked, she has come again!” And Heidi would sit by her and talk and tell her everything she knew in so lively a manner that the grandmother never noticed how the time went by, and never now as formerly asked Brigitta, “Isn’t the day done yet?” but as the child shut the door behind her on leaving, would exclaim, “How short the afternoon has seemed; don’t you think so, Brigitta?” And this one would answer, “I do indeed; it seems as if I had only just cleared away the mid-day meal.” And the grandmother would continue, “Pray God the child is not taken from me, and that Alm-Uncle continues to let her come! Does she look well and strong, Brigitta?” And the latter would answer, “She looks as bright and rosy as an apple.”

And Heidi had also grown very fond of the old grandmother, and when at last she knew for certain that no one could make it light for her again, she was overcome with sorrow; but the grandmother told her again that she felt the darkness much less when Heidi was with her, and so every fine winter’s day the child came traveling down in her sleigh. The grandfather