it freeze, the inmates of the little house would be
prisoners, for no one could cut his way through
these great blocks of frozen snow, and only Peter
was small enough to slip in and out of the tiny
window.

But the season of ice and snow also brought
many advantages to Peter. When he wanted to
go to Dörfli he had only to open the window and
crawl out to find himself on the solid crust of snow.
Then his mother would hand out his sled to him, and
when he was seated on it, he had but to give it a
push, to go speeding away in any direction he chose,
for the whole mountain side was one great slide.

But the Alm-Uncle was not in his mountain hut
this winter; he had kept his word, and at the first
snow-fall had locked up house and stable, and had
taken Heidi and the goats down to Dörfli. Here,
quite near the church and the parsonage, stood a
rambling old building which in times long past
had been a great mansion as was still plainly to be
seen, although the entire structure was more or
less in ruins. It had once been the home of a brave
soldier of the Spanish wars, who had not only done
many a valiant deed, but had taken much booty as
well. With this he returned to his native place
and built himself this handsome house in which he
intended to spend the rest of his days. But be-
fore long he wearied of quiet little Dörfli, and

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