“Please, grandfather, tell me why the eagle screeches so loudly,” asked Heidi.
“Because he is sneering at the people down below, who sit in the villages and make each other angry. He calls down to them:—’If you would go apart to live up on the heights like me, you would feel much better!’” The grandfather said these last words with such a wild voice, that it reminded Heidi of the eagle’s screech.
“Why do the mountains have no names, grandfather?” asked Heidi.
“They all have names, and if you tell me their shape I can name them for you.”
Heidi described several and the old man could name them all. The child told him now about all the happenings of the day, and especially about the wonderful fire. She asked how it came about.
“The sun does it,” he exclaimed. “Saying good-night to the mountains, he throws his most beautiful rays to them, that they may not forget him till the morning.”
Heidi was so much pleased with this explanation, that she could hardly wait to see the sun’s good-night greetings repeated. It was time now to go to bed, and Heidi slept soundly all night.
Heidi, by Johanna Spyri, is a beloved novel about a young girl who goes to live with her grand uncle in the alps when her parents die. Her cheerful innocence brings light into the lives of everyone who encounters her!
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