Heidi helps clean the house and then visits Grannie while Grandfather walks to Dörfli to collect her trunk. Grannie is thankful for the white rolls, and Heidi offers to use her money to buy Grannie white rolls each day. She reads to Grannie a hymn about God being like the sun, and she weeps with joy. Grandfather returns and Heidi tells him about her plan to use the money for the rolls, and he says she can do what she likes with the money. Heidi is glad that God did not answer her prayers to return home, because the timing was not right. She reads Grandfather the Biblical story of the prodigal son. In the story, a young man asks his father for his inheritance and squanders the money leaving him destitute. When the son returns home and begs his father for forgiveness, the father graciously celebrates his return and forgives his son. The story deeply moves Grandfather and later that night, he prays to ask God to forgive him for his faults.

The next morning, Grandfather tells Heidi they are going to church. She dresses in one of Clara’s gowns, and Grandfather wears a coat with shiny buttons.