she vanished, and left him to take his way alone across the hills.

ULYSSES AT THE HOUSE OF THE SWINEHERD

By F. S. Marvin, R. J. C. Mayor, and F. M. Stowell

Ulysses went up along the rough mountain path, through the forest and over
the hills, till he came to the house where his faithful steward lived. It
stood in an open space, and there was a large courtyard in front with a
wall of heavy stones and hawthorn boughs and a stout oak palisade. Inside
the yard there were twelve sties for the pigs, and the swineherd kept four
watch-dogs to guard the place, great beasts and fierce as wolves, that he
had reared himself. Ulysses found him at home, sitting in the porch alone,
and cutting himself a pair of sandals from a brown oxhide.

The dogs caught sight of the king as soon as he came up and flew at him,
barking, but he had the wit to let go his staff and sit down at once on
the ground. Still it might have gone hard with him there in front of his
own servant's house had not Eumaeus rushed out of the porch, dropping the
leather in his haste, and scolded the dogs, driving them off with a volley
of stones.

Then he said to Ulysses, "A little more, old man, and the dogs would have
torn you in pieces, and disgraced me forever. And I have my full share of
trouble as it is, for I have lost the best master in all the world and
must sit here to mourn for him and fatten his swine for other men, while
he is wandering somewhere in foreign lands, hungry and thirsty perhaps, if
he is still alive at all. But now come in yourself, and let me give you
food and drink and tell me your own tale."

So he took Ulysses into the house and made a seat for him with a pile of
brushwood boughs and a great thick shaggy goat-skin which he used for his
own bed, and all with so kind a welcome that it warmed the king's heart
and made him pray the Gods to bless him for his goodness. But Eumaeus only
said, "How could I neglect a stranger, though he were a worse man than
you? All strangers and beggars are sent to us by Zeus. Take my gift and
welcome, though it is little enough I have to give, a servant such as I,
with new masters to lord it over him. For we have lost the king who would
have loved me and given me house and lands and all that a faithful servant
ought to have, whose work is blest by the Gods and prospers, as mine does
here. Alas! he is dead and gone! he went away with Agamemnon to fight at
Troy and never came home again."

So saying