In the morning, Heidi heard a familiar whistle.
She ran outside, and there were the goats, leaping about with Peter in their midst.
"Hello, Daisy! Hello, Dusky!
Do you remember me?"
she said as Grandfather led his two goats from their pen.
The goats recognized Heidi's voice and came up to rub their heads against her.
Heidi was out of her mind with delight to be back with her old friends again.
"Good morning, Peter," Heidi called out.
"Will you come up the mountain with me?"
Peter asked, as if Heidi had never gone away.
"Tomorrow, perhaps," said Heidi. "I promised to visit Grannie today."
"I am glad you are back!"
said Peter, and his whole face beamed with pleasure.
Heidi spent the rest of the morning helping Grandfather with chores around the hut.
In the afternoon, she went down to visit Grannie, who met her at the door.
"Is it you, Heidi?" said Grannie.
Then, she took Heidi's hand and held it in her own.
As they went inside, Heidi told Grannie that she had a surprise for her.
Grannie sat with a blanket across her knees, and Heidi went over to a small bookshelf.
She took down one of Grannie's prayer books, held the book open, and began to read.
A look of unbelievable joy filled Grannie's face.
Heidi had never seen her so happy before.
Heidi sat down beside her and finished reading the prayer.
"Please, read it again," said Grannie.
After Heidi finished it a second time, Grannie said,
"Ah, Heidi, that brings light to my heart!
What comfort you have brought me!"
Heidi asked Grannie if she had enjoyed the white rolls.
Grannie had eaten two the day before, and another that morning.
"They are wonderful!" she said.
"I do believe they will make me feel stronger."
Heidi was thrilled.
"Clara's father has given me some money, and the baker in Dorfli makes white rolls," she said.
"I am going to buy you white rolls every day and two on Sundays!"
"No, no, Heidi, that money is for you," said Grannie.
But Heidi would not take no for an answer.
Heidi passed the day reading to Grannie, enjoying it as much as she enjoyed playing with the goats or running among the flowers on the mountain.
When she returned home, she told Grandfather all about her day.
Heidi danced for joy around the hut.
"Oh, Grandfather, everything is happier now than it was before!
If God had let me come home earlier, I would not have been able to read to Grannie, and she likes my reading so much."
She stopped her dancing and looked at Grandfather.
"God arranged it all so much better than I could have.
So we will pray every day and never forget Him!
Won't we, Grandfather?"
"And what if one does forget God?" asked Grandfather in a low voice.
"Then everything goes wrong.
If you run away from God when He could have helped you, then He leaves you to yourself," said Heidi seriously.
"That is true," said Grandfather. "Where did you learn that?"
"Grandmamma explained it all to me," said Heidi.
"And a man who God forgets is forgotten forever,"
said Grandfather, almost as if he were thinking of something that happened long ago.
"Oh no, Grandfather, we can always go back.
Grandmamma said so.
God is always watching over us.
All we need to do is start praying, and He will answer our prayers when it is time."
As Heidi lay sleeping that night, Grandfather climbed up to the hay loft.
He knelt beside Heidi's bed and, for the first time in many long years, he prayed.