Not many days after, the younger son took his journey into a far country, and as he had no one there to guide him, and as he did not heed the advice of his dear father, he began to waste his money and get into evil ways.
Very soon he had spent all his father had given him, and had nothing left in his purse.
Up to this time he had thought he could do very well without his father, but now he began to be in want. It was so hard to be hungry, to find his clothes get ragged, and for his companions to forsake him. And it made him sad and afraid when he remembered that he had no house to sleep in, and no friends near.
By and by a farmer took pity on him, and hired him to go and feed his pigs; and he was so hungry that he could almost have eaten the pigs' food. But no one gave him anything.
At last as he sat dejectedly watching the pigs, he came to himself! He began to remember his dear home and his father's love. He no longer prided himself on what he could do, and what he could buy. He saw his behaviour in its true light. He told himself that he had been very naughty and very disobedient, and he began to be sorry.
And when he came to himself he said, "How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I, his son, am dying of hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and tell him I have sinned, and ask him to make me one of his servants."
So he got up to go to his father.
His father had been very sad all the time his boy had been away. His heart had ached terribly, though his son had never thought of that.
Every day he looked out for his lost one, and watched for him along the roads and over the mountains till it grew too dark to see.
But one day, when the son was yet a great way off, his father saw him coming! Then the dear father ran to meet him, and fell on his neck and kissed him.