HEIDI
his father’s flocks, and was dressed in a fine cloak, and stood leaning on his shepherd’s staff watching as the sun went down, just as he was to be seen in the picture. But then all at once he wanted to have his own goods and money and to be his own master, and so he asked his father to give him his portion, and he left his home and went and wasted all his substance. And when he had nothing left he hired himself out to a master who had no flocks and fields like his father, but only swine to keep; and so he was obliged to watch these, and he only had rags to wear and a few husks to eat, such as the swine fed upon. And then he thought of his old happy life at home and of how kindly his father had treated him and how ungrateful he had been, and he wept for sorrow and longing. And he thought to himself, “I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, ‘Father, I am not worthy to be called thy son; make me as one of thy hired servants.’" And when he was yet a great way off his father saw him . . . Here Heidi paused in her reading. “What do you think happens now, grandfather?” she said. “Do you think the father is still angry and will say to him ‘I told you so!’ Well, listen now to what comes next.” His father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.” But the father said to his servants, “Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet: and bring hither the fatted calf and kill it; and let us eat and be merry, for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found. And they began to be merry.”
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