as they drove along he entered into conversation with her. "You
are the child who lived with your grandfather, Alm-Uncle, are you
not?"
"Yes."
"Didn't they treat you well down there that you have come back
so soon?"
"Yes, it was not that; everything in Frankfurt is as nice as it
could be."
"Then why are you running home again?"
"Only because Herr Sesemann gave me leave, or else I should not
have come."
"If they were willing to let you stay, why did you not remain
where you were better off than at home?"
"Because I would a thousand times rather be with grandfather on
the mountain than anywhere else in the world."
"You will think differently perhaps when you get back there,"
grumbled the miller; and then to himself, "It's strange of her,
for she must know what it's like."
He began whistling and said no more, while Heidi looked around
her and began to tremble with excitement, for she knew every
tree along the way, and there overhead were the high jagged peaks
of the mountain looking down on her like old friends. And Heidi
nodded back to them, and grew every moment more wild with her
joy and longing, feeling as if she must jump down from the cart
and run with all her might till she reached the top. But she sat
quite still and did not move, although inwardly in such
agitation. The clock was striking five as they drove into
Dorfli. A crowd of women and children immediately surrounded the
cart, for the box and the child arriving with the miller had
excited the curiosity of everybody in the neighborhood,
inquisitive to know whence they came and whither they were going
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