 Toft, left alone to wait for the return of the Moomins, finally realises how the view of the family which he had developed in his imagination is too perfect to be real, and comes to accept that even Moominmamma, who he hoped will be his mother, has problems and times of anger just like everybody else.Seeing that "the boat [upon which the Moomins are returning] was a very long way away", he walks down to the jetty to wait for them.