Heidi’s first winter visit to Peter's Grandmother begins as a promise kept and becomes a practical act of care. A sleigh ride across the frozen mountain brings Heidi into a cramped, deteriorating cottage, where she learns that the grandmother is completely blind and frightened by the house’s creaking walls. Heidi’s distress draws out the old woman’s need for company; Heidi carries that need back to Alm-Uncle, who repairs the cottage and continues taking her down to visit. The event joins emotional comfort to material help: the grandmother cannot regain her sight, but she need no longer face the same darkness and fear alone.

The invitation and the winter journey

The visit follows a Sunday meal at Alm-Uncle’s hut. As Peter prepares to leave, he tells Heidi that his grandmother would like her to come and see her. Heidi takes the request seriously. The next day she insists that the grandmother will be waiting, and repeats her intention over several days despite Alm-Uncle’s first objection that the snow is too deep. On the fourth day, with the snow hardened by frost and bright sunlight entering the hut, he relents and brings down the thick sack that serves as Heidi’s covering.

The journey itself makes the visit a joint undertaking. Alm-Uncle brings out a hand-sleigh with a low seat, wraps Heidi securely in the sack, holds her close, and guides the sleigh down the mountain with a pole and his feet. Heidi delights in the fir trees glittering in the snow, calling Alm-Uncle to look at their silver-and-gold appearance. At the bottom, he sets her down at Peter's Family Hut and tells her to come out again when it grows dark. He leaves her there and pulls the sleigh back uphill.

A small cottage and a hard revelation

Inside, Heidi passes through a tiny, dark kitchen into another narrow room. The cottage is old, poor, and shabby, unlike Alm-Uncle’s spacious herdsman’s hut. Brigitta is mending Peter’s waistcoat, while Peter's Grandmother sits bent over her spinning. Heidi approaches her directly, introduces herself, and asks whether the grandmother thought she had taken a long time to arrive. The old woman identifies Heidi by feeling the hand she offers and hearing that she lives with Alm-Uncle.

The visit reveals that the grandmother’s darkness is not a problem a repaired shutter can solve. She explains that she hears the shutter rattle, the wind force its way through cracks, and the house creak around her. She fears at night that the cottage will collapse and kill those inside; Peter, she says, cannot mend it, and no one else is there to help. Heidi points out the loose shutter and imagines that letting in more light might allow the grandmother to see. The grandmother then makes clear that she sees nothing at all and that no one can restore light to her eyes. When she mourns the lost sight of the mountains and yellow flowers, Heidi breaks into prolonged sobbing.

From sorrow to a promise of help

Peter's Grandmother tries to comfort Heidi by explaining that a kind word matters greatly to someone who can no longer see, and that she enjoys listening to Heidi talk. She invites the child to sit beside her and describe life on the mountain, including Alm-Uncle, whom she knew in earlier years but had heard little about recently. Heidi quickly dries her tears and turns to telling her about mountain life and the things Alm-Uncle makes from wood. She also assures the grandmother that Alm-Uncle will make things right, both by stopping the house’s frightening noises and, in Heidi’s hopeful misunderstanding, by making it light for her again.

Back at the hut, Heidi explains the danger as she understands it: the cottage is coming apart, the grandmother lies awake trembling, and no one but Alm-Uncle can help. Clinging to him, she asks that they go the next day with a hammer and long nails. Alm-Uncle agrees to repair what he can, specifically the rattling. Heidi’s delight at his answer marks a change from helpless grief to confidence in a concrete remedy, even though the grandmother’s blindness itself cannot be undone.

Repairs and a lasting change

Alm-Uncle keeps his promise. The following afternoon, he takes Heidi back by sleigh, leaves her at the cottage, and goes around to mend it. When heavy blows strike the wall, the grandmother fears that the house is falling. Heidi reassures her that the sound is Alm-Uncle hammering to make the place safe. Hearing this, the grandmother exclaims that God has not forgotten them and asks Brigitta to find Alm-Uncle so she can thank him. He is fastening new pieces of wood to the wall, but cuts short Brigitta’s attempt to praise him and returns to the work. He hammers around the house and up on the roof until he has used all the nails he brought.

The visit develops into a recurring winter practice rather than a single act of charity. Alm-Uncle continues taking Heidi down on fine winter days, carrying his hammer and other tools as well as the sack. He repairs the cottage until it no longer groans and rattles through the night. Because he fears Heidi might become cold if she rides alone on the return journey, he carries her safely in his arms, even though he must drag the sleigh back uphill.

The repeated visits also alter the grandmother’s experience of time. After years in which her days passed without pleasure or change, she listens for Heidi’s quick footsteps and welcomes her arrival with gratitude. Heidi’s lively conversation makes the afternoons seem short; instead of asking whether the day is over, the grandmother remarks that it has passed quickly. She hopes Heidi will continue to be allowed to visit and asks whether the child looks well. Heidi, in turn, grows deeply fond of her and grieves that her blindness is permanent. The visits cannot restore sight, but they bring conversation, anticipation, safer shelter, and peaceful sleep. The event’s resolution is therefore both intimate and practical: Heidi’s companionship brightens the grandmother’s days, while Alm-Uncle’s labor makes her home less frightening at night.