SOMETHING UNEXPECTED HAPPENS
“I’ll teach you another time to go by like that, you lazy rascal! What do you mean by it?” Uncle called to him. Peter, recognizing the voice, jumped up like a shot. “No one was up,” he answered.
“Have you seen anything of the chair?” asked the grandfather.
“Of what chair?” called Peter back in answer in a morose tone of voice.
Uncle said no more. He spread the shawls on the sunny slope, and setting Clara upon them asked if she was comfortable.
“As comfortable as in my chair,” she said, thanking him, “and this seems the most beautiful spot. Oh Heidi, it is lovely, it is lovely!” she cried, looking round her with delight.
The grandfather prepared to leave them. They would now be safe and happy together, he said, and when it was time for dinner Heidi was to go and fetch the bag from the shady hollow where he had put it; Peter was to bring them as much milk as they wanted, but Heidi was to see that it was Little Swan’s milk. He would come and fetch them towards evening; he must now be off to see after the chair and ascertain what had become of it.
The sky was dark blue, and not a single cloud was to be seen from one horizon to the other. The great snowfield overhead sparkled as if set with thousands and thousands of gold and silver stars. The two gray mountain peaks lifted their lofty heads against the sky and looked solemnly down upon the valley as of old; the great bird was poised aloft in the clear blue air, and the mountain wind came over the heights and blew
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