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UP THE ALM ON A SUMMER EVENING 181
" Sebastian, if we could only be perfectly sure that the grandmother is still alive."
" Yes, indeed! Yes, indeed!" replied her companion, half asleep; " she's still alive ; I don't see any reason why not."
After a while Heidi's eyes also closed ; after the disturbance of the previous night and the early start she was so heavy with sleep that she did not awaken until Sebastian shook her by the arm and called out to her :
" Wake up ! Wake up ! We must get out now, we are in Basle ! "
On the following morning they journeyed for several hours more. Heidi again sat with the basket in her lap, for on no account would she give it up to Sebastian ; but to-day she did not speak, for with each hour her eagerness became more intense. Then suddenly, when Heidi was not thinking about it, came the loud call — "Mayenfeld!" She jumped up from her seat, and Sebastian did the same, for he too had been surprised. Now they stood outside with the trunk, and the train was whistling farther on up the valley. Sebastian looked longingly after it, for he much preferred traveling on in that safe and easy way to undertaking a journey on foot, which had to end in climbing a mountain, and might be hard and dangerous besides, in this country where everything was still half wild, as he supposed. He therefore looked carefully about him for some advice concerning the safest way to " Dorfli." Not far from the railway station stood a little wagon, drawn by a lean horse ; into this a broad- |
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