back to Sidon,
and she fled to their ship, carrying with her the child whom she nursed,
little Eumaeus; she also stole three cups of gold. The woman died at
sea, and the pirates sold the boy to Laertes, the father of Ulysses, who
treated him kindly. Eumaeus was fond of the family which he served, and
he hated the proud wooers for their insolence.

When Ulysses came near his house the four great dogs rushed out and
barked at him; they would have bitten, too, but Eumaeus ran up and threw
stones at them, and no farm dog can face a shower of stones. He took
Ulysses into his house, gave him food and wine, and told him all about
the greed and pride of the wooers. Ulysses said that the master of
Eumaeus would certainly come home, and told a long story about himself.
He was a Cretan, he said, and had fought at Troy, and later had been
shipwrecked, but reached a country called Thesprotia, where he learned
that Ulysses was alive, and was soon to leave Thesprotia and return to
Ithaca.

Eumaeus did not believe this tale, and supposed that the beggar man only
meant to say what he would like to hear. However, he gave Ulysses a good
dinner of his own pork, and Ulysses amused him and his fellow slaves
with stories about the Siege of Troy, till it was bedtime.

In the meantime Athene had gone to Lacedaemon to the house of Menelaus,
where Telemachus was lying awake. She told him that Penelope, his
mother, meant to marry one of the wooers, and advised him to sail home
at once, avoiding the strait between Ithaca and another isle, where his
enemies were lying in wait to kill him. When he reached Ithaca he must
send his oarsmen to the town, but himself walk alone across the island
to see the swineherd. In the morning Telemachus and his friend,
Pisistratus, said good-bye to Menelaus and Helen, who wished to make him
presents, and so went to their treasure house. Now when they came to the
place where the treasures were stored, then Atrides took a double cup,
and bade his son, Megapenthes, to bear a mixing-bowl of silver. And
Helen stood by the coffers, wherein were her robes of curious needlework
which she herself had wrought. So Helen, the fair lady, lifted one and
brought it out--the widest and most beautifully embroidered of all--and
it shone like a star, and lay far beneath the rest.

Then they went back through the house till they came to Telemachus; and
Menelaus, of the fair hair, spake to him, saying:

'Telemachus, may Zeus the th