Thank you for your reply...

You are actually quite right!!  But the idea is that the father watched over him...  It may well have been from some distance, ect...

Much like the old American Indian story that goes like this... 

Once upon a time; back when animals could speak to humans: a man had climbed through some mountains and high up on a pass came upon a Rattle Snake on the cold ground...  The snake ask the man to take him down to the warm valley below... The man answered " But, you will bite me!" ...   " Oh No!"  said the snake...

Well the man picked up the snake and carried it down to the warm valley below, placing it upon the ground... Then the snake struck the man on the leg...  The  man replied...  " But, you promised not to bite me if I brought you down!!"

Where by the snake answered... "You knew what I was; before you picked me up!"

So the lesson is explained for the reader or listener to learn!!  Now the story may be some what allegorical or paraphrased; but the True meaning is still there... 

" It is the Truth we should seek to learn from!! " a Kermit-ism 2007