, the good swineherd rose and fetched what meat and wine he had,
and set it before Ulysses, grieving that he had nothing better for him
because the shameless suitors plundered everything.

But Ulysses ate and drank eagerly, and when his strength had come again he
asked Eumaeus, "My friend, who is this master of yours you tell me of? Did
you not say he was lost for Agamemnon's sake? Perhaps I may have seen him,
for I have traveled far."

But the swineherd answered, "Old man, his wife and son will believe no
traveler's tale. They have heard too many such. Every wandering beggar who
comes to Ithaca goes to my mistress with some empty story to get a meal
for himself, and she welcomes him and treats him kindly and asks him about
it all, with the tears running down her cheeks in a woman's way. Yes, even
you, old man, might learn to weave such tales if you thought they would
get you a cloak or a vest. No, he is dead, and dogs and birds have eaten
him, or else he has fed the fishes and his bones lie somewhere on the
seashore, buried in the sand. And he has left us all to grieve for him,
but no one more than me, who can never have so kind a master again, not
though I had my heart's desire and went back to my native land and saw my
father and mother, and the dear home where I was born. It is Ulysses above
all whom I long to see once more. There, stranger, I have called him by
his name, and that I should not do; for he is still my dear master though
he is far away."

Then Ulysses said, "My friend, your hope has gone and you will never
believe me. But I tell you this and seal it with an oath: Ulysses will
return! Poor as I am, I will take no reward for my news till he comes to
his own again, but you shall give me a new vest and cloak that day, and I
will wear them."

But the swineherd answered, "Ah, my friend, I shall never need to pay you
that reward. He will never come back again. But now drink your wine in
peace, and let us talk of something else, and do not call to mind the
sorrow that almost breaks my heart. Tell me of yourself and your own
troubles and who you are, and what ship brought you here, for you will not
say you came afoot."

Then Ulysses pretended he was a Cretan and had fought at Troy, and told
Eumaeus a long tale of adventures and how he had been wrecked at last on
the coast of Epirus. The king of the country, he said, had rescued him,
and he had learned that Ulysses had been there a little while before, and