"It must have been the wind, Grandfather," exclaimed Heidi, and her eyes grew anxious at this sudden discovery. "Oh! if it has blown the chair all the way down to Doerfli we shall not get it back in time, and shall not be able to go." "If it has rolled as far as that it will never come back, for it is in a hundred pieces by now," said the grandfather, going round the corner and looking down. "But it's a curious thing to have happened!" he added as he thought over the matter, for the chair would have had to turn a corner before starting down hill. "Oh, I am sorry," lamented Clara, "for we shall not be able to go today, or perhaps any other day. I shall have to go home, I suppose, if I have no chair. Oh, I am so sorry, I am so sorry!" But Heidi looked towards her grandfather with her usual expression of confidence. "Grandfather, you will be able to do something, won't you, so that it need not be as Clara says, and so that she is not obliged to go home." "Well, for the present we will go up the mountain as we had arranged, and then later on we will see what can be done," he answered, much to the children's delight. He went indoors, carried out a pile of shawls, and laying them on the sunniest spot he could find set Clara down upon them. Then he brought the children's morning milk and led out his two goats. "Why is Peter not here yet," thought Uncle to himself, for Peter's whistle had not been sounded that morning. The grandfather then took Clara up on one arm, and the shawls on the other. "Now then we will start," he said, "the goats can come with us." Heidi was pleased at this and walked on after her grandfather with an arm over either of the goats' necks, and the animals were so overjoyed to have her again that they nearly squeezed her flat between them out of sheer affection. When they reached the spot where the goats usually pastured they were surprised to find them already feeding there, climbing about the rocks, and Peter with them, lying his full length on the ground. "I'll teach you another time to go by like that, you lazy rascal! What do you mean by it?" Uncle called to him. Peter, recognizing the voice, jumped up like a shot. "No one was up," he answered. "Have you seen anything of the chair?" asked the grandfather. "Of what chair?" called Peter back in answer in a morose tone of voice. Uncle said no more. He spread the shawls on the sunny slope, and setting Clara upon them asked if she was comfortable. "As comfortable as in my chair," she said, thanking him, "and this seems the most beautiful spot. O Heidi, it is lovely, it is lovely!" she cried, looking round her with delight.