es lay scattered about, from the
furthest of which a voice called out to her through an open door:
"Deta, please wait one moment! I am coming with you, if you are going
further up."

When the girl stood still to wait, the child instantly let go her hand
and promptly sat down on the ground.

"Are you tired, Heidi?" Deta asked the child.

"No, but hot," she replied.

"We shall be up in an hour, if you take big steps and climb with all
your little might!" Thus the elder girl tried to encourage her small
companion.

A stout, pleasant-looking woman stepped out of the house and joined
the two. The child had risen and wandered behind the old
acquaintances, who immediately started gossiping about their friends
in the neighborhood and the people of the hamlet generally.

"Where are you taking the child, Deta?" asked the newcomer. "Is she
the child your sister left?"

"Yes," Deta assured her; "I am taking her up to the Alm-Uncle and
there I want her to remain."

"You can't really mean to take her there Deta. You must have lost your
senses, to go to him. I am sure the old man will show you the door and
won't even listen to what you say."

"Why not? As he's her grandfather, it is high time he should do
something for the child. I have taken care of her until this summer
and now a good place has been offered to me. The child shall not
hinder me from accepting it, I tell you that!"

"It would not be so hard, if he were like other mortals. But you know
him yourself. How could he _look_ after a child, especially such a
little one? She'll never get along with him, I am sure of that!--But
tell me of your prospects."

"I am going to a splendid house in Frankfurt. Last summer some people
went off to the baths and I took care of their rooms. As they got to
like me, they wanted to take me along, but I could not leave. They
have come back now and have persuaded me to go with them."

"I am glad I am not the child!" exclaimed Barbara with a shudder.
"Nobody knows anything about the old man's life up there. He doesn't
speak to a living soul, and from one year's end to the other he keeps
away from church. People get out of his way when he appears once in a
twelve-month down here among us. We all fear him and he is really just
like a heathen or an old Indian, with those thick grey eyebrows and
that huge uncanny beard. When he wanders along the road with his
twisted stick we are all afraid to meet him alone."

"That is not my fault