ceeded in gaining a rocky mass which stood
above the surface just before him, and clutching it with hands and
knees, contrived to keep his hold until the huge billow was past. In
another moment he was caught by the recoil of the wave, and flung back
into the boiling surf, with fingers torn and bleeding. With desperate
exertions he fought his way out into the comparatively calm water,
outside the line of breakers, and swam parallel to the shore, until he
saw with delight a sheltered inlet, whence a river flowed into the
sea. Murmuring a prayer to the god of the river he steered for land,
and a few strokes brought him to a smooth sandy beach, where he lay
for a long time without sense or motion. All his flesh was swollen by
his long immersion in the water, the skin was stripped from his hands,
and when his breath came back to him he felt as weak as a child. Then
a deadly nausea came over him, and the water which he had swallowed
gushed up through his mouth and nostrils. Somewhat relieved by this,
he rose to his feet, and tottering to the river's brink loosed the
veil from his waist, and dropped it into the flowing water. For he
remembered the request of Ino, to whom he owed his life.

He had indeed escaped the sea; but his position seemed almost
hopeless. There he lay, naked, and more dead than alive, without food
or shelter, in a strange land, without a sign of human habitation in
view. Crawling painfully to a bed of rushes he lay down and considered
what was best for him to do. He could not remain where he was, for it
was an exposed place, with no protection from the dew, and open to the
chill breeze from the river, which blows at early dawn. A few hours of
such a vigil would certainly kill him in his exhausted state. If, on
the other hand, he sought the shelter of the woods, he feared that he
would fall a prey to some prowling beast.

At last he determined to face the less certain peril, and made his way
into a thicket not far from the river side. Searching for a place
where he might lie he soon came upon two dense bushes of olive, whose
leaves and branches were so closely interwoven that they formed a sort
of natural arbour, impenetrable by sun, or rain, or wind. "In good
time!" murmured Odysseus, as he crept beneath that green roof, and
scooped out a deep bed for himself in the fallen leaves. There he lay
down, and piled the leaves high over him. And as a careful housewife
in some remote farmhouse, where there are n