ntor and the aged Halitherses, he went and sat down
among them. While they were questioning him about his travels, Peiraeus
came up, bringing with him the seer, Theoclymenus, whom Telemachus had
left in his charge the day before. "I restore to thee thy guest," said
Peiraeus, "who has been entertained in all honour at my house; and if
thou wilt send thy handmaids, I will deliver unto them the treasure
which thou hast brought with thee from Pylos."

"I thank thee," answered Telemachus; "Theoclymenus shall go with me;
but as to the treasure, do thou keep it for me until these evil days
are passed. If aught untoward befall me, I had rather it remained with
thee than that it should fall into the hands of the wooers."

Having taken leave of his friends, he returned to the house, taking
Theoclymenus with him. And when they had bathed and put on fresh
raiment, they sat down to meat. The meal proceeded in silence, and at
last Penelope, who was sitting near, busy with her distaff, and
longing impatiently to hear her son's news, said in a tone of
displeasure: "Hast thou no word for thy mother, Telemachus? Or art
thou keeping thy tidings until the wooers return? Surely I thought in
this rare interval of quiet to hear how thou hast fared and what thou
hast learnt on this journey. But if thou hast naught to tell me, I
will go to my widowed bed, and weep away the hours until dawn."

Roused from his reverie by his mother's reproaches, Telemachus gave a
brief account of his visit to Nestor and Menelaus, and of what they
had told him. Penelope was musing on her son's report, when
Theoclymenus, the second-sighted man, started up from his seat, and
cried: "I see him, I see him! He is landed in Ithaca, he is coming
hither, he is here! Woe unto the suitors! Their hour is at hand, and
not one of them shall escape."

Penelope had heard such prophecies too often to pay much heed to the
seer's vision. "Ah! my friend," she said, with a sad smile, "I can but
pray that thy words will be fulfilled; if ever they are, it shall be a
happy day for thee."

At this moment the wooers came trooping in, filling the house with
riot and uproar; and there was an end of all quiet converse for that
day.

II

It was past noon before Odysseus and Eumaeus set out for the town; for
Eumaeus had conceived a great liking for his guest, and listened with
delight to his wonderful tales of adventure. "Come," he said at last,
when Odysseus had finished one of his l