"Have no fear, grandmother," said Uncle in a reassuring voice,
"I shall not punish either you or myself by doing so. We are all
together now, and pray God we may continue so for long."
Brigitta now drew the Uncle aside towards a corner of the room
and showed him the hat with the feathers, explaining to him how
it came there, and adding that of course she could not take such
a thing from a child.
But the grandfather looked towards Heidi without any displeasure
of countenance and said, "The hat is hers, and if she does not
wish to wear it any more she has a right to say so and to give
it to you, so take it, pray."
Brigitta was highly delighted at this. "It is well worth more
than ten shillings!" she said as she held it up for further
admiration. "And what a blessing Heidi has brought home with her
from Frankfurt! I have thought sometimes that it might be good
to send Peter there for a little while; what do you think,
Uncle?"
A merry look came into the grandfather's eye. He thought it
would do Peter no harm, but he had better wait for a good
opportunity before starting. At this moment the subject of their
conversation himself rushed in, evidently in a great hurry,
knocking his head violently against the door in his haste, so
that everything in the room rattled. Gasping and breathless he
stood still after this and held out a letter. This was another
great event, for such a thing had never happened before; the
letter was addressed to Heidi and had been delivered at the post-
office in Dorfli. They all sat down round the table to hear what
was in it, for Heidi opened it at once and read it without
hesitation. The letter was from Clara. The latter wrote that the
house had been so dull since Heidi left that she did not know how
to bear herself, and she had at last persuaded her father to take
her to the baths at Ragatz in the coming autumn; grandmamma had
arranged to join them there, and they both were looking forward
to paying her and her grandfather a visit. And grandmamma sent a
further message to Heidi which was that the latter had done quite
right to take the rolls to the grandmother, and so that she might
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