that she must conduct herself quietly at meal time.

While waiting on the table, Sebastian made the
most wonderful gestures whenever he caught
Heidi's eye; first he would touch his own head and
then point to hers, after which he would nod and
wink, as if to say: "Be of good cheer! I saw it
and have taken care of it."

That night, when Heidi went to her room, and
turned back the coverlet on her bed, there lay her
crushed straw hat hidden away beneath it. In
rapture she drew forth the little old hat and
crushed it yet a bit more in her joy at finding it
again; then she wrapped it up in the kerchief and
stowed it away in the farthermost corner of her
closet.

It was Sebastian who had tucked it under the
coverlet; for when Tinette was called to take it
away he was in the dining-room and so had heard
Heidi's cry of distress. Then, when the maid
went to carry out her orders, he followed her, and
as she came out of the child's room with the load
of bread in her arms and the hat on top of it, he
quickly took it from her, saying: "I'll attend to
this."

With great satisfaction he had put it away for
Heidi, and it was this that he had tried to make
her understand at supper, in the hope of cheering
her.

-149-