HEIDI
down the street, but there were just as many at the second pump, but I was able to get some water at the one in the next street, and the gentleman with the white hair asked me to give his kind regards to Herr Sesemann.”
“You have had quite a successful expedition,” said Herr Sesemann laughing, “and who was the gentleman?”
“He was passing, and when he saw me he stood still and said, ‘As you have a glass will you give me a drink? to whom are you taking the water?’ and when I said, ‘To Herr Sesemann,’ he laughed very much, and then he gave me that message for you, and also said he hoped you would enjoy the water.”
“Oh, and who was it, I wonder, who sent me such good wishes—tell me what he was like,” said Herr Sesemann. “He was kind and laughed, and he had a thick gold chain and a gold thing hanging from it with a large red stone, and a horse’s head at the top of his stick.”
“It’s the doctor—my old friend the doctor,” exclaimed Clara and her father at the same moment, and Herr Sesemann smiled to himself at the thought of what his friend’s opinion must have been of this new way of satisfying his thirst for water.
That evening when Herr Sesemann and Fräulein Rottenmeier were alone, settling the household affairs, he informed her that he intended to keep Heidi; he found the child in a perfectly right state of mind, and his daughter liked her as a companion. “I desire, therefore,” he continued, laying stress upon his words, “that the child shall be in every way kindly treated, and that her peculiarities shall not be looked upon as crimes.
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