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Excerpted Inspirations #248

Writer: Linda Odhner, with photos by Liz Kufs
Linda Odhner, with photos by Liz Kufs
11 minutes ago
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[Klara, the invalid girl Heidi met in Frankfurt, has come to visit Heidi in her mountain home. Today for the first time Klara has gone to the field where goatherd Peter pastures the goats.] Several hours had passed […] when it occurred to Heidi that she would like to go over to the place where there were so many flowers, and see if they were all open and as beautiful as the year before. When her grandfather came back at evening they might go there with Klara, but perhaps the flowers would already have their eyes closed then. Heidi’s longing kept increasing until she could resist it no longer. So she asked timidly: “Would you be angry, Klara, if I should run away very fast and leave you alone? I should so much like to see how the flowers are; but wait” – a thought came to Heidi. She jumped aside and pulled up some beautiful bunches of green plants; Schneehöpli immediately came running toward her and she took her round the neck and led her to Klara. “There, you must not be left alone,” said Heidi, pushing Schneehöpli to a place a little nearer Klara. This the goat understood very well and lay down. Then Heidi threw the leaves into Klara’s lap, and she said, much delighted, that Heidi must go now and take a good look at the flowers; she was perfectly willing to stay alone with the goat; it was something she had never done before. Heidi ran away and Klara began to hold out one leaf after another for Schneehöpli; and the goat was so tame that she nestled up to her new friend and ate the leaves slowly out of her fingers. One could easily see how contented she was that she dared to lie so quietly and peacefully in this place of refuge; for outside with the flock she always had to endure a great deal of chasing from the big strong goats. How delightful it seemed to Klara to sit in this way, all alone on a mountain, with only a little trusting goat looking up at her so helplessly. A great desire arose in her to become her own master and be able to help someone else and not always be obliged to take help from others. And so many thoughts which she had never had before came to Klara, and a strange desire to live in the beautiful sunshine and do something to give pleasure to someone as she was now pleasing Schneehöpli. An entirely new joy came into her heart, and it seemed as if everything she knew might be much more beautiful and different from what she had ever seen before; and she felt so contented and happy that she had to throw her arms around the goat’s neck and exclaim: “Oh, Schneehöpli, how beautiful it is up here; if I only could stay here always with you!” -Johanna Spyri, Heidi (1880) pp. 284-286

 
 
 

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