after man. When his arrows were done Odysseus also
snatched a spear, and they fought side by side. Beside them fought the
swineherd and one other man, and they all fought the more fearlessly
because, all the time, Athene put fresh courage in their hearts.

There were four men to very many others when that fight began. When it
was ended the floor ran with blood, and Odysseus, like a lion at bay,
stood with the dead bodies of the wooers piled in heaps around him and
his face and hands stained with blood.

When all lay dead, the old nurse gave a great cry of joy.

"Rejoice in thy heart, old nurse," said Odysseus. "It is an unholy
thing to rejoice openly over slain men."

The nurse hastened to Penelope's room.

"Penelope, dear child!" she cried, "Odysseus is come home, and all the
wooers lie dead."

At first Penelope would not believe her. Too good did it seem to be
true. Even when she came down and saw Odysseus leaning against a tall
pillar in the light of the fire, she would not believe what her own
eyes saw.

"Surely, mother, thy heart is as hard as stone," said Telemachus.
"Dost thou not know my father?"

But Penelope saw only a ragged beggar-man, soiled with the blood of
the men he had slain, old and ugly and poor.

Then Athene shed her grace upon Odysseus, and once more he was tall
and strong and gallant to look upon, with golden hair curling like
hyacinth flowers around his head. And Penelope ran to him and threw
out her arms, and they held each other close and wept together like
those who have suffered shipwreck, and have been tossed for long by
angry seas, and yet have won safely home at last.

And when the sun went down that night on the little rocky island of
Ithaca in the far seas, the heart of Odysseus was glad, for he knew
that his wanderings were ended.

ROBINSON CRUSOE

By DANIEL DEFOE

ADAPTED BY JOHN LANG

I

HOW ROBINSON FIRST WENT TO SEA; AND HOW HE WAS SHIPWRECKED

Long, long ago, before even your grandfather's father was born, there
lived in the town of York a boy whose name was Robinson Crusoe. Though
he never even saw the sea till he was quite a big boy, he had always
wanted to be a sailor, and to go away in a ship to visit strange,
foreign, far-off lands; and he thought that if he could only do that,
he would be quite happy.

But his father wanted him to be a lawyer, and he often talked to
Robinson, and told him of the terrible things that might happen to him
i