NEWS FROM DISTANT FRIENDS
a chair of this sort would suit one another. After a few minutes’ contemplation, “Grandfather,” she said, shaking her head doubtfully, “I don’t think she would be able to sit on that.”
“Then we will invite her on the couch with the beautiful green turf feather-bed,” was her grandfather’s quiet rejoinder.
While Heidi was pausing to consider what this might be, there approached from above a whistling, calling, and other sounds which Heidi immediately recognized. She ran out and found herself surrounded by her four-footed friends. They were apparently as pleased as she was to be among the heights again, for they leaped about and bleated for joy, pushing Heidi this way and that, each anxious to express his delight with some sign of affection. But Peter sent them flying to right and left, for he had something to give to Heidi. When he at last got up to her he handed her a letter.
“There!” he exclaimed, leaving the further explanation of the matter to Heidi herself.
“Did some one give you this while you were out with the goats?” she asked, in her surprise.
“No,” was the answer.
“Where did you get it from then?”
“I found it in the dinner bag.”
Which was true to a certain extent. The letter to Heidi had been given him the evening before by the postman at Dörfli, and Peter had put it into his empty bag. That morning he had stuffed his bread and cheese on the top of it, and had forgotten it when he fetched Alm-Uncle’s two goats; only when he had
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