The older wasted the family fortune on drinking and gambling, while the younger ran away to serve in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies's Army in Naples.

After Tobias serves an apprenticeship to Mels, father and son move to Dörfli ('small village' in Swiss German) in the municipality of Maienfeld.

Shortly after the grandmother's death, Dete is offered a job as a maid in the big city, and takes 5-year-old Heidi to live with the Alm-Uncle.

Three years later, Dete returns to take Heidi to Frankfurt to be a hired lady's companion to a wealthy girl named Klara Sesemann, who is unable to walk and regarded as an invalid.

Her one diversion is learning to read and write using a collection of Biblical stories, motivated by Klara's grandmother Frau Sesemann who shows her trust and affection, and encourages her to believe in God and to pray.

Heidi's homesickness leads to episodes of sleepwalking where she goes downstairs and opens the front door, which the household initially takes as the work of ghosts.

The family doctor recommends she be sent home before she becomes seriously ill. She gladly returns to the mountains laden with presents for her friends and the book from Frau Sesemann, but finds one of her greatest pleasures is reading hymns to Peter's blind grandmother, who can no longer do so for herself.

Klara makes the journey the next season and spends a wonderful summer with Heidi, becoming stronger on goat's milk and fresh mountain air.

Melcon, Helene S. White, Marian Edwardes, Elisabeth P. Stork, Mabel Abbott, Philip Schuyler Allen, Shirley Watkins, M. Rosenbaum, Eileen Hall, and Joy Law.

The Heidi films were popular far and wide, becoming a huge hit, and the Japanese animated series became iconic in several countries around the world.

Directed by Toerien with musical direction by Dawid Boverhoff, the production starred Tobie Cronjé (Rottenmeier), Dawid Minnaar (Sesemann), Albert Maritz (Grandfather), Ilse Klink (Aunt Dete), Karli Heine (Heidi), Lynelle Kenned (Klara), Dean Balie (Peter), Jill Middlekop and Marlo Minnaar.

[20] A stage musical adaptation of Heidi of the Mountain (music and lyrics by Claude Watt, book by Claude and Margaret Watt) was performed in Sidney, BC, Canada by Mountain Dream Productions, premiering in 2007 at the Charlie White Theatre, and has been performed again several times since then.

[26] Heidiland is located in an area called Bündner Herrschaft; it is criticized as being a "laughable, infantile cliché"[24] and "a more vivid example of hyperreality".

These include: In 1990, screenwriters Weaver Webb and Fred & Mark Brogger, and director Christopher Leitch, produced Courage Mountain, starring Charlie Sheen and Juliette Caton as Heidi.