HEIDI
upon him, she thought she would prepare the ground a little for the following lessons.
“Wait, and I will read you some of the next sentences,” she continued, “then you will see what else there is to expect.” And she began in a clear, slow voice:—
D E F G must run with ease
Or something will follow that does not please.
Should H I J K be now forgot
Disgrace is yours upon the spot.
And then L M must follow at once
Or punished you’ll be for a sorry dunce.
If you knew what next awaited you
You’d haste to learn N O P Q.
Now R S T be quick about
Or worse will follow there’s little doubt.
Heidi paused, for Peter was so quiet that she looked to see what he was doing. These many secret threats and hints of dreadful punishments had so affected him that he sat as if petrified and stared at Heidi with horror-stricken eyes. Her kind heart was moved at once, and she said, wishing to reassure him, “You need not be afraid, Peter; come here to me every evening, and if you learn as you have to-day you will at last know all your letters, and the other things won’t come. But you must come regularly, not now and then as you do to school; even if it snows it won’t hurt you.”
Peter promised, for the trepidation he had been in had made him quite tame and docile. Lessons being finished for this day he now went home.
[292]
