"How many hired servants of my father have bread enough and to spare," he said, "and I perish with hunger!"
"I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.'"
The father must have been watching for his lost boy, for while he was yet a great way off he saw him, and ran to meet him. He put his arms around him and kissed him without once speaking of his sins, and he called his servants to bring the best robe and put it on him, and a ring for his hand, and shoes for his feet, and then to kill the fatted calf to make a feast for all,
"For," he said "this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found."
The elder son had been away in the field but when he came home heard music and dancing, and called to a servant to ask what these things meant. When he had heard he was very angry, and would not go in. His father came out to beg him to come in and greet his brother, but he said,
"Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment, and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends." But the father said,
"Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. It was meet that we should make merry and be glad, for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again, and was lost and is found."
