Johanna Spyri

“ So the party set out while the skies were all aglow with the sunset hues and [25] the snow-white peaks growing rosy with the reflected light.
Franzelie was supremely happy, and her kind friend so won her childish heart that she told him all about their mountain life, the goats, the haymaking, and what they did in the long winter.
III The mother had remained a long time in a stupor. At last she awakened, but felt unable to move. The twilight had begun. She looked around for the children. They were nowhere to be seen.
“Barty!” she called. “Franzelie!” But no answer came. Fear gave her strength. ”

“ The children stood awhile by the old tower, but when there was a short pause they began the New Year’s Song.
“Listen! Be quiet!” cried the powerful voice of the large man at the end of the table. “I hear music.”
The young men looked around, and when they saw the children cried, “Nearer; come over here.”
The children came, Franzelie timidly holding fast her brother’s hand. The large man with ruddy face and heavy [17] beard stretched out his long arm and drew Barty to his side. ”

“ Here is a very large old nut-tree, and it is a delight to the weary wanderer to throw himself down in its cool shade and gaze far up at the blue sky and high mountains whose tops are lost in the white clouds. ”

“ Before some of them so many children were singing their different songs [11] that the mistress of the house said she would rather give bread than have such a disturbance. Some received them kindly; others sent them empty away.
More than one called to Franzelie: “Here, little one, is something for you. Come in and get warm and then hurry home, you are shivering with cold.” And the mother said they could no longer stand in the keen air.
When they were once more by the warm fire in their little cottage, they opened the heavy basket. ”

“ Barty and Franzelie eagerly tried to divide their small portion.
“No,” she said, “there is no use; perhaps if I could see the doctor when I go to Altdorf, he would help me.”
She sank back on the little cot on which she was sitting and her eyes closed. She had fainted from weakness, but the children thought her sleeping.
“Come,” said Barty, “don’t wake Mother up. I will tell you what we will do. We will go down to Altdorf and sing our song again, and if we can get some bread or nuts we will bring them all home to mother. I think she will [15] sleep a long time. ”

“ The days grew very hot and dry, and the goats gave less milk, the mother spent the days and part of the nights knitting and spinning, but there was little time for indoor work while the haymaking lasted, and it was after a day spent in the heat that she returned to find a tiny bit of bread which she divided between the children. ”

“ Here the steep path leads to a small Swiss cottage with a little stall near by. Higher is a similar cottage and above them still another, the smallest of all perched up among the wild rocks. Before the low door is a grassy sward where the goats are milked, and in the summer the door stands always open. ”

“ The goats were driven into the upper pasture and gave much more milk. But the mother could never rest from toil; there was wood to gather for the coming winter, and the grass on the high slopes was cut [13] by her and spread out to dry by the children. Then it was bound into bundles, which the mother carried on her head, and the sturdy Barty also carried his little bundle.
Summer time came, and the Grass on the high slopes was cut ”

“ As he wiped the moisture from his brow, he said, “I greatly wonder, Afra, that you have acquaintances so far away, and the [32] postmaster cannot understand it at all, or make out who it is.”
“It is surely a mistake,” said Afra; “it cannot be for me.” ”