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.

Clara, on the contrary, enjoyed her companion's society, for she
always did funny things. In her lesson she could never get her letters
straight. They meant absolutely nothing to her, except that they would
remind her of goats and eagles. The girls always spent their evenings
together, and Heidi would entertain her friend with tales of her
former life, till her longing grew so great that she added: "I have to
go home now. I must go tomorrow."

Clara's soothing words and the prospect of more rolls for the
grandmother kept the child. Every day after dinner she was left alone
in her room for some hours. Thinking of the green fields at home, of
the sparkling flowers on the mountains, she would sit in a corner till
her desire for all those things became too great to bear. Her aunt had
clearly told her that she might return, if she wished to do so, so one
day she resolved to leave for the Alm-hut. In a great hurry she packed
the bread in the red shawl, and putting on her old straw hat, started
off. The poor child did not get very far. At the door she encountered
Miss Rottenmeier, who stared at Heidi in mute surprise.

"What are you up to?" she exploded. "Haven't I forbidden you to run
away? You look like a vagabond!"

"I was only going home," whispered the frightened child.

"What, you want to run away from this house? What would Mr. Sesemann
say? What is