TWO VISITS AND WHAT CAME OF THEM
“Or I you,” was the answer.
“I have come to-day to talk over something with you,” continued the pastor. “I think you know already what it is that has brought me here,” and as he spoke he looked towards the child who was standing at the door, gazing with interest and surprise at the stranger.
“Heidi, go off to the goats,” said her grandfather. “You take them a little salt and stay with them till I come.”
Heidi vanished on the spot.
“The child ought to have been at school a year ago, and most certainly this last winter,” said the pastor. “The school-master sent you word about it, but you gave him no answer. What are you thinking of doing with the child, neighbor?”
“I am thinking of not sending her to school,” was the answer.
The visitor, surprised, looked across at the old man, who was sitting on his bench with his arms crossed and a determined expression about his whole person.
“How are you going to let her grow up then?” he asked.
“I am going to let her grow up and be happy among the goats and birds; with them she is safe, and will learn nothing evil.”
“But the child is not a goat or a bird, she is a human being. If she learns no evil from these comrades of hers, she will at the same time learn nothing; but she ought not to grow up in ignorance, and it is time she began her lessons. I have come now that you may have leisure to think over it, and to arrange about it during the summer. This is the last winter that she must be allowed to run wild; next winter she must come regularly to school every day.”
[87]
