To perform such a feat the writer must, to begin with, be familiar with the mountains, and able to appreciate with Wordsworth

The silence that is in the starry sky,
[7] The sleep that is among the lonely hills.

The translator of the present version was born and reared in a region closely similar to that of the story. Her home was originally in the picturesque town of Salzburg, and her father, Franz von Pausinger, was one of the greatest landscape painters of his country and generation. Another equally important requisite is knowledge of children. It happens that this translator has a daughter just the age of the heroine, who moreover loves to dress in Tyrolese costume. To translate "Heidi" was for her therefore a labor of love, which means that the love contended with and overcame the labor.

The English style of the present version is, then, distinctive. It has often been noticed that those who acquire a foreign language often learn to speak it with unusual clearness and purity. For illustration we need go no further than Joseph Conrad, a Pole, probably the greatest master of narrative English writing to-day; or to our own fellow-citizen Carl Schurz. In the present case, the writer has lived seven years in America and has strengthened an excellent training with a wide reading of the best English classics.

Many people say that they read without noticing the author's style. This is seldom quite true; unconsciously every one is impressed in some way or other by the style of every book, or by its lack of style. Children are particularly sensitive in this respect and should, therefore, as much as is practicable, read only the best. In the new translation of "Heidi" here offered to the public I believe that most readers will notice an especial flavor, that very quality of delight in mountain scenes, in mountain people and in child life generally, which is one of the chief merits of the German original. The phrasing has also been carefully adapted to the purpose of reading aloud—a thing that few translators think of. In conclusion, the author, realising the difference between the two languages, has endeavored to write the story afresh, as Johanna Spyri would have written it had English been her native tongue. How successful the attempt has been the reader will judge.

Charles Wharton Stork
Assistant Professor of English at the
University of Pennsylvania

CONTENTS

PART I
HEIDI'S YEARS OF LEARNING AND TRAVEL
CHAPTER PAGE
I[Going up to the Alm-Uncle]17
II.[With the Grandfather]38
III.[On the Pasture]50
IV.[In the Grandmother's Hut]67
V.[Two Visitors]83
VI.[A New Chapter with New Things]95
VII.[Miss Rottenmeier Has an Uncomfortable Day]104
VIII.[Great Disturbances in the Sesemann House]119
IX.[The Master of the House Hears of Strange Doings]129
X.[A Grandmama]136
XI.[Heidi Gains in Some Respects and Loses in Others]146
XII.[The Sesemann House is Haunted]153
XIII.[Up the Alp on a Summer Evening]165
XIV.[On Sunday When the Church Bells Ring]183
PART II
HEIDI MAKES USE OF HER EXPERIENCE
XV.[Preparations for a Journey]199
XVI.[A Guest on the Alp]207
XVII.[Retaliation]219
XVIII.[Winter in the Village]229
XIX.[Winter Still Continues]243
XX.[News from Distant Friends]252
XXI.[On Further Events on the Alp]268
XXII.[Something Unexpected Happens]276
XXIII.[Parting to Meet Again]293