21
"`Father,' cried the son, `I have sinned against Heaven and before you: no longer do I deserve to be called a son of yours.'
22
"But the father said to his servants, "`Fetch a good coat quickly--the best one--and put it on him; and bring a ring for his finger and shoes for his feet.
23
Fetch the fat calf and kill it, and let us feast and enjoy ourselves;
24
for my son here was dead and has come to life again: he was lost and has been found.' "And they began to be merry.
25
"Now his elder son was out on the farm; and when he returned and came near home, he heard music and dancing.
26
Then he called one of the lads to him and asked what all this meant.
27
"`Your brother has come,' he replied; `and your father has had the fat calf killed, because he has got him home safe and sound.'
28
"Then he was angry and would not go in. But his father came out and entreated him.
29
"`All these years,' replied the son, `I have been slaving for you, and I have never at any time disobeyed any of your orders, and yet you have never given me so much as a kid, for me to enjoy myself with my friends;
30
but now that this son of yours is come who has eaten up your property among his bad women, you have killed the fat calf for him.'
31
"`You my dear son,' said the father, `are always with me, and all that is mine is also yours.