Sebastian

Sebastian is a servant in the Sesemann household whose practical kindness gives Heidi an ally within a world governed by strict rules. Though he is careful not to challenge Fraulein Rottenmeier openly, he notices Heidi’s needs, helps her when he can, and takes responsibility for her journey home. His episodes also make him part of the household’s comic mystery: he joins a nighttime watch for a supposed ghost without knowing that Heidi’s sleepwalking has opened the front door.

Position in the Household

Sebastian serves Clara Sesemann and works under Fraulein Rottenmeier’s authority. His response to that hierarchy is visible when he noisily opens the dining-room doors while furious with the housekeeper, yet does not dare answer back. He then goes to Clara’s chair to wheel her into the dining room. The scene establishes both the limits of his position and the frustration those limits produce: he can show his anger in a gesture, but not in direct defiance.

Heidi’s arrival gives him an unexpected point of connection. While preparing to move Clara, he notices Heidi staring at him; she tells him that he looks like Peter. Fraulein Rottenmeier is horrified that Heidi addresses a servant as if he were a friend, but Sebastian’s response is less severe. At dinner, he discreetly watches the housekeeper’s reaction when Heidi asks whether she may have the white roll beside her plate. Heidi pockets it, then asks Sebastian to serve her fish. His barely contained amusement contrasts with the household’s insistence on formal manners, while his stillness at her side reflects the rules governing a servant’s conduct.

Helping Heidi Find Her Way

Sebastian becomes someone Heidi can approach when she needs practical assistance. During Clara’s afternoon rest, Heidi waits in the hall to intercept him as he carries silver tea-things to the dining-room cupboard. She has been ordered to address him formally, and does so; he asks what she wants. Heidi tries to reassure him that her request is nothing bad like what happened that morning, believing that her spilled ink may have put him in a cross temper. The exchange shows her trying to read his mood and make peace, even as the household’s rules shape how she speaks to him.

Her question is how to open a window. Sebastian demonstrates by pushing up one of the large windows, but Heidi is too short to see outside: her head reaches only the sill. The answer is simple, yet the moment matters because she has turned to a member of the household staff for help with an unfamiliar place. Later, when Heidi describes a route by landmarks, including a large grey house whose roof she sketches in the air with her forefinger, a boy recognizes the kind of directions he knows how to follow. He runs ahead with Heidi, and they reach a door marked by a large dog’s-head knocker. Sebastian opens it quickly when Heidi rings and urges her to hurry inside: the household is already at table, and Fraulein Rottenmeier is furious. He has not prevented Heidi’s excursion, but he receives her without delay and immediately warns her of the trouble awaiting her.

Quiet Kindness and the Straw Hat

Sebastian’s most personal kindness appears after Heidi’s white rolls are taken away. She had meant them for Peter’s grandmother, and, believing they are gone, she collapses on Clara’s couch in distress. Clara promises to provide just as many, or more, fresh rolls for her grandmother when Heidi goes home. That evening Heidi arrives at supper with red eyes and can barely keep from sobbing at the sight of her roll. Sebastian catches her eye and makes small, strange signs, pointing from his own head to hers and nodding to reassure her that he has kept something safe.

The thing he has saved is Heidi’s old straw hat. When she gets into bed, she finds it under the counterpane, takes it up delightedly, and hides it deep in a corner of the cupboard after wrapping it in a handkerchief. Sebastian had heard Heidi’s distress and followed Tinette after she left Heidi’s room carrying the rolls and the hat. He took the hat from her, saying he would see to the old thing. The rescue does not restore the rolls Heidi had wanted for her grandmother, but it preserves an object she values and explains his silent encouragement at supper. His care works through discreet action rather than open argument with the household staff.

The Night Watch and Its Misunderstanding

The household’s fear of a nighttime intruder draws Sebastian into a comic misreading. For several mornings the servants find the front door standing open, though the house appears undisturbed. The door is locked twice at night and secured with a wooden bar, but it is open again by morning. After persuasion from Fraulein Rottenmeier, Sebastian and John agree to watch in a room beside the large council-chamber. She supplies weapons belonging to Herr Sesemann and a bottle of spirits in case their courage fails.

The spirits first make the watchers talkative, then sleepy. At midnight Sebastian wakes and tries to rouse John, who has been sleeping in his chair. John eventually rises with an appearance of courage and steps into the hall. A gust blows through the open front door and extinguishes his light. He retreats in alarm, pulling Sebastian back into the room; Sebastian has not seen the open door or felt the breeze behind John. Once they are inside again, he sees that John is trembling and asks sympathetically what happened. The episode makes their fear concrete while also preserving the gap between what the reader knows and what Sebastian can see.

When Herr Sesemann questions him directly about whether he has been staging the haunting to amuse himself at Fraulein Rottenmeier’s expense, Sebastian denies it on his honor and says that he is uncomfortable about the matter too. His answer is presented as truthful. Herr Sesemann then tells him to carry a message to his old friend The doctor, who is wanted that night. Once the truth about Heidi’s nightly wanderings becomes clear, Sebastian understands that they explain the ghostly visitations. He had been frightened by a mystery whose cause he did not know, rather than participating in a prank.

Escorting Heidi Home and Other Acts of Regard

When The doctor’s assessment leads Herr Sesemann to decide that Heidi must go home, Dete is unwilling to undertake the journey. Herr Sesemann therefore sends Sebastian with Heidi as far as Basle, with instructions that he continue the next day and a letter for the grandfather explaining the situation. His assignment turns his attentiveness into a responsibility for Heidi’s safety. Herr Sesemann gives him specific precautions for the overnight stop: secure the windows and lock Heidi’s bedroom door from the outside because she walks in her sleep and might wander into danger.

The journey changes course when a miller agrees to take Heidi and her box to Dorfli, where someone can arrange for her to continue up the mountain. Heidi says she knows the way from Dorfli and can go by herself. Sebastian is greatly relieved not to have to climb the mountain, but he still gives her a thick rolled parcel and a letter for her grandfather. He explains that the parcel is a present from Herr Sesemann and tells her to keep it safe at the bottom of her basket, beneath the rolls. After helping her onto the cart’s high seat, he shakes her hand and gestures for her to watch the basket as the cart departs. He waits at the station for the return train, having entrusted the rest of the way to Heidi and the miller.

Sebastian’s attention to Heidi continues beyond her departure. When he opens the door for The doctor, he asks him to give Heidi his greetings. The doctor realizes Sebastian already knows that he is leaving on a journey. Sebastian hesitates, then explains that he had happened to pass through the dining room, overheard Heidi’s name, and put the clues together. The small, awkward explanation echoes his earlier concern for her: even after she has left the household, he remembers her and wishes to send his regards. Across these scenes, Sebastian’s kindness remains modest and practical—an opened window, a rescued hat, a careful parcel, a message—while his formal place in the household keeps him from making it conspicuous.