"O God, why did we ever let him go? And that woman to send him to his death for nothing! When it was the others that made him ..."
"You'd better try and be calm a bit," said her husband. "Here's the Pastor coming. The boat's just putting in."
"Tell him I know all about it. He can go back again."
"Can't very well do that, when he's been at the trouble to come."
Joel walked away, and came back a moment later with the Pastor and a young man.
The priest walked up to the weeping woman.
"Joel tells me you've heard already, Mor Elversson," he said. "About Sven. He was concerned in a very unpleasant business, and his adopted parents sent him away."
Mor Elversson had risen to curtsey to the Pastor. She still held a corner of her apron to her eyes, but, for all her weeping, she caught a glimpse of the stranger with him.
"It's Sven," said a voice within her. "Sven...."
A host of thoughts crowded into her mind. She realized that Joel had lied to her, in his anger at her heartlessness. She felt, too, that she would never be able to overcome the sorrow she had felt on hearing that her son had tasted human flesh. She saw that they would have to keep this son at home with them now, since no one else would have him in their service. But in the midst of all these cold reflections she saw how thin and pale the boy looked, how his eyes begged her sympathy, and a wave of pity and love rose in her heart.