"Stop!" for he already saw himself being carried off by Alm- Uncle and the pastor and sent straight away to the Hottentots, since as yet he did not know his last letter. His cry of fear brought Heidi back. "What is the matter?" she asked in astonishment. "Nothing! come back! I am going to learn my letter," he said, stammering with fear. Heidi, however, herself wished to know where the Hottentots lived and persisted that she should ask her grandfather, but she gave in at last to Peter's despairing entreaties. She insisted on his doing something in return, and so not only had he to repeat his Z until it was so fixed in his memory that he could never forget it again, but she began teaching him to spell, and Peter really made a good start that evening. So it went on from day to day. The frost had gone and the snow was soft again, and moreover fresh snow continually fell, so that it was quite three weeks before Heidi could go to the grandmother again. So much the more eagerly did she pursue her teaching so that Peter might compensate for her absence by reading hymns to the old woman. One evening he walked in home after leaving Heidi, and as he entered he said, "I can do it now." "Do what, Peter?" asked his mother. "Read," he answered. "Do you really mean it? Did you hear that, grandmother?" she called out. The grandmother had heard, and was already wondering how such a thing could have come to pass. "I must read one of the hymns now; Heidi told me to," he went on to inform them. His mother hastily fetched the book, and the grandmother lay in joyful expectation, for it was so long since she had heard the good words. Peter sat down to the table and began to read. His mother sat beside him listening with surprise and exclaiming at the close of each verse, "Who would have thought it possible!" The grandmother did not speak though she followed the words he read with strained attention. It happened on the day following this that there was a reading lesson in Peter's class. When it came to his turn, the teacher said,-- "We must pass over Peter as usual, or will you try again once more--I will not say to read, but to stammer through a sentence." Peter took the book and read off three lines without the slightest hesitation. The teacher put down his book and stared at Peter as at some out- of-the-way and marvellous thing unseen before. At last he spoke,-- "Peter, some miracle has been performed upon you! Here have I been striving with unheard-of patience to teach you and you have not hitherto been able to say your letters even. And now, just as I had made up my mind not to waste any more trouble upon you, you suddenly are able to read a consecutive sentence properly and distinctly. How has such a miracle come to pass in our days?" "It was Heidi," answered Peter.