Grandfathers -- Fiction; Mountain life -- Switzerland -- Fiction; Orphans -- Fiction; Switzerland -- History -- 19th century -- Fiction
"Stop! stop!" she called, but in vain, for the music drowned her
voice. Suddenly she made a big jump, for there, between her feet,
crawled a black turtle. Only when she shrieked for Sebastian could her
voice be heard. The butler came straight in, for he had seen
everything behind the door, and a great scene it had been! Glued to a
chair in her fright, Miss Rottenmeier called: "Send the boy away! Take
them away!"
Sebastian obediently pulled the boy after him; then he said: "Here are
forty pennies from Miss Clara and forty more for playing. It was well
done, my boy."
With that he closed the door behind him. Miss Rottenmeier found it
wiser now to stay in the study to prevent further disturbances.
Suddenly there was another knock at the door. Sebastian appeared with
a large basket, which had been brought for Clara.
"We had better have our lesson before we inspect it," said Miss
Rottenmeier. But Clara, turning to the tutor, asked: "Oh, please, Mr.
Candidate, can't we just peep in, to see what it is?"
"I am afraid that you will think of nothing else," the teacher began.
Just then something in the basket, which had been only lightly
fastened, moved, and one, two, three and still more little kittens
jumped out, scampering around the room with the utmost speed. They
bounded over the tutor's boots and bit his trousers; they climbed up
on Miss Rottenmeier's dress and crawled around her feet. Mewing and
running, they caused a frightful confusion. Clara called out in
delight: "Oh, look at the cunning creatures; look how they jump!
Heidi, look at that one, and oh, see the one over there?"
Heidi followed them about, while the teacher shook them off. When the
housekeeper had collected her wits after the great fright, she called
for the servants. They soon arrived and stored the little kittens
safely in the new bed.
No time had been found for yawning that day, either!
When Miss Rottenmeier, who had found out the culprit, was alone with
the children in the evening, she began severely:
"Adelheid, there is only one punishment for you. I am going to send
you to the cellar, to think over your dreadful misdeeds, in company
with the rats."
A cellar held no terrors for Heidi, for in her grandfather's cellar
fresh milk and the good cheese had been kept, and no rats had lodged
there.
But Clara shrieked: "Oh, Miss Rottenmeier, you must wait till Papa
comes home, and then he can punish Heidi."
The lady unwillingly replied: "All right, Clara, but I shall also
speak a few words to Mr. Sesemann." With those words she left the
room. Since the child's arrival everything had been upset, and the
lady often felt discouraged, though nothing remarkable happened for a
few days.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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