was a bitter night, with snow and frost, and our shields were soon coated with ice.  Now it chanced that I had left my cloak in the camp, and while the others lay warm in their thick woollen mantles, I was perishing with cold.  At last I could bear it no longer, so I nudged Odysseus, who was lying next to me, with my elbow, and said to him:  ’Son of Laertes, the cold is killing me.  I came in my folly without a cloak, and I can never hold out until dawn in this cruel frost.’  And he, ever ready of wit as he was, instantly contrived means to relieve me.  Whispering to me to keep counsel he rose on his elbow, and called to the others, saying:  ’Comrades, I have been warned in a dream that our numbers are too weak for the task which has been laid upon us.  Will not one of you run down to the camp, and ask Agamemnon to send us further succour?’

“Thereupon one of our men arose, and flinging off his cloak ran off to carry the message to Agamemnon.  And I lay wrapped in the garment, warm and safe, until the dawn.  Ah! those were brave days; what changes have I seen since then!”

“I read thy meaning,” said Eumaeus; “and as a reward for thy good story thou shalt sleep in comfort to-night.  But to-morrow thou must make shift to wear thine own rags again, for I am but ill furnished with changes of raiment.  When Telemachus returns he will supply all thy wants, and send thee whithersoever thou art minded to go.”

So saying he drew a truckle-bed close to the fire, and heaped it with the skins of sheep and goats.  There Odysseus lay down to rest, and Eumaeus threw over him a stout mantle of his own.  All the other herdsmen slept in the hut; but Eumaeus, ever watchful for his master’s property, went out, armed to the teeth, to pass the night among the swine, under the shelter of a hollow rock, which kept off the cold north wind.  And Odysseus was glad when he saw that good servant so faithful to his trust.

The Return of Telemachus

I

While these important events were happening in Ithaca, Telemachus was living as an honoured guest in the house of Menelaus.  One night, while he lay between sleeping and waking, full of anxious thought, Athene appeared to him in her own person, and addressed him thus:  “Thou lingerest too long here, Telemachus.  It is time for thee to return and keep an eye on thy goods, lest thou be stripped of all in thy absence.  Thy mother’s kinsmen are urgent with her to wed Eurymachus, the wealthiest of the wooers; and, if she yield, it may be that she will take of thy heritage to increase the house of the man who wins her.  Therefore make haste and get thee home, that thou mayest be at hand to defend thy rights.  Know also that the wooers are lying in wait for thee in the strait between Ithaca and Samos, with intent to slay thee; take heed then that thou shun that passage, and sail home by another way.  And when thou art come to Ithaca, go straight to the dwelling of Eumaeus, and send him down to Penelope with news of thy return.”