Vinzi: A Story of the Swiss Alps

by Johanna Spyri

Alida assented. “And we are to spend our days on the pasture, because papa wants us to,” she added, “but it is a shame Vinzi won’t be with us.”

Stefeli answered Alida that it was never dull up on the pasture. Her father had prophesied a long stretch of good weather, and that meant that they would be out of doors all day.

Mr. Lesa had been right. The merry little group could wander up day after day to the sunny pasture, and Mrs. Lesa saw to it that a really nourishing meal was always taken along. Alida was in perfect raptures over this free life, hitherto unknown to her. What a blissful beginning of the day to start off in the early morning, when she was usually lying asleep in bed behind her heavy curtains! How delicious the pure air was! All the birds in the trees sang and whistled so that it sounded like a loud chorus of joy to God.

The two girls would start out together on little trips to explore the interesting places on the large, wide pasture. Sometimes they would seek berries or flowers; another time they went to the old wall where the shining lizards sunned themselves, or listened attentively when the children began to sing. Stefeli knew that if they were silent or made the least movement, the little green creatures would quickly slip away. Alida found it an especial treat to be able to sit down anywhere on the sun-dried ground. She had not experienced this before and it gave her constant pleasure. Stefeli was always ready to settle down beside her, and everything furnished them with subjects for lively conversation.

On the first morning, when Stefeli had promised to waken Alida early, both girls stood fresh and full of enterprise before the barn, waiting for Jos. He had to loosen the cows from their chains before driving them out. Hugo had come down from his room, because his father had wished him to go along to the pasture.

He looked so frail and tired that it hurt Mrs. Lesa to look at him. She led him affectionately back to his room, and fixing the cushions on his bed, told him to rest a little longer. There was no hurry for him to go, for a little later on she would take him up and show him the way herself. He would never have to start quite so early, if he did not want to.

For the first time since he had lost his mother, Hugo felt himself sheltered again by a mother’s affectionate care. From that day on a great love for her began to fill his heart. She watched over him like a mother and saw to it that everything was done for him that might do him good. In these first days the quiet boy, who was still bearing a great sorrow in his heart, spent many hours alone in Mrs. Lesa’s company. He found great consolation in it and learned to feel such confidence in her that he began to talk about his mother. She listened with such sympathy that they always returned to that subject when he was with her.

The comfort the boy found in her warm interest was soon apparent. One day Hugo came down quite early into the gleaming sunshine. He had never done it since that first day when he had looked so pale and tired. He already seemed much stronger and to Mrs. Lesa’s joy wished to go right up to the pasture. Till then he had preferred to sit in the house till she sent him out and accompanied him part way.

Hugo found Jos alone on the pasture, singing and whistling while he strolled about among the cows. Alida and Stefeli had gone on a little trip of discovery. It seemed as if Hugo saw the beautiful creatures who were grazing here and there, looking about them, for the first time in his life. He began to ask Jos many questions, for after watching them carefully he had noticed how much they differed in their looks as well as in their ways. He had always thought that cows were just cows, one like another. Jos was in his element now and grew talkative, drawing Hugo’s attention to all the animals’ habits. The subject proved so contagious that Hugo conceived a keen interest in them and wanted to hear all about them. He only had to ask to be told what he wished to know. Jos could describe them with such keen vividness that Hugo grew most eager to share Jos’s knowledge and to find pleasure in it. He soon knew what fodder was the best for milk, which was made first into butter and then into cheese, and how the milk had to be handled for that purpose. He also learned that the Alpine herdsmen preferred Vinzenz Lesa’s milk to any other because his cows were of the best stock and were so immaculately kept.

The two were still talking eagerly when to their great astonishment Stefeli came running toward them and spread out their mid-day meal under the swaying ash tree. They had been so lost in their conversation that they had not noticed how the time had flown. This had suited Stefeli, too, because she had come back rather late from her expedition. Alida also appeared and in the best of humor as the four sat down to lunch. All of them felt especially merry, because Hugo had never been so lively and gay.