At this point the doctor laid down his pen, arose, and went to the
book-case for his Homer, with purpose to copy the original lines into
a footnote--for, to tell the truth, he had never quite mastered the
methods of the Greek accents. He found the passage in Odyssey 14.
Yes, it was all right--

autar Odysseus
Ezeto kerdosune, skeptrou de oi ekpese cheiros . . .

But--hallo! what was this next line?--

Eutha kev o para stathmo aeikelion pathen algos . . .

--'There by his own steading,' the poet went on, 'would Odysseus have
suffered foul hurt, had not the swineherd hurried out and scolded the
dogs and pelted them off with stones.' It would seem then, according
to Homer, that this device of squatting upon the ground could not be
trusted save as a diversion, a temporary check. Doctor Unonius bit
his nether lip. Strange that he had overlooked this. . . .

He had a scholar's conscience. He could not endure to garble a
quotation or suppress a material point for the sake of illustrating
an argument more vividly. . . . Besides, it might delude some
unfortunate person into sitting down where self-preservation demanded
a more alert posture. Somebody--dreadful thought!--might get himself
severely bitten, mauled, mangled perhaps to death, merely by obeying
a piece of pseudo-scientific advice. That he, Doctor Unonius, might
never be reproached with the disaster, might never even hear of it,
in no degree mitigated his responsibility.

While he stood by the bookcase, balancing his spectacles on his
forefinger and Homer's words in his mind, Jenifer, his one small
maid-servant, entered with word that Roger Olver was at the door with
a message from Penalune.

'Show him in,' said Doctor Unonius.

So Roger Olver, huntsman and handy-man to Sir John Penalune of
Penalune, squire of Polpeor, hitched his horse's bridle on the staple
by the doctor's front door--it would be hard to compute how many
farmers, husbands, riding down at dead of night with news of wives in
labour, had tethered their horses to that well-worn staple--and was
conducted by Jenifer to the doctor's study.

'Ah! Good morning, Roger!'

'Mornin', y'r honour. Sir John bade me ride down an' ask 'ee--'

'To be sure--to be sure. As it happens, no man could have come at a
happier moment. Accustomed, as you are, to dogs--'

'Hounds,' corrected Roger.

'It makes no difference.' The doctor translated the pass