come when thou shouldst
return. Come. Rouse Menelaus, and let him send thee upon thy way.'

Then Telemachus woke Peisistratus out of his sleep and told him that it
was best that they should be going on their journey. But Peisistratus
said, 'Tarry until it is dawn, Telemachus, when Menelaus will come to us
and send us on our way.'

Then when it was light King Menelaus came to them. When he heard that
they would depart he told the lady Helen to bid the maids prepare a meal
for them. He himself, with Helen his wife, and Megapenthes, his son,
went down into his treasure-chamber and brought forth for gifts to
Telemachus a two-handled cup and a great mixing bowl of silver. And
Helen took out of a chest a beautiful robe that she herself had made and
embroidered. They came to Telemachus where he stood by the chariot with
Peisistratus ready to depart. Then Menelaus gave him the beautiful
two-handled cup that had been a gift to himself from the king of the
Sidonians. Megapenthes brought up the great bowl of silver and put it in
the chariot, and beautiful Helen came to him holding the embroidered
robe.

'I too have a gift, dear child, for thee,' she said. 'Bring this robe
home and leave it in thy mother's keeping. I want thee to have it to
give to thy bride when thou bringest her into thy father's halls.'

[Illustration]

Then were the horses yoked to the chariot and Telemachus and
Peisistratus bade farewell to Menelaus and Helen who had treated them so
kindly. As they were ready to go Menelaus poured out of a golden cup
wine as an offering to the gods. And as Menelaus poured it out,
Telemachus prayed that he might find Odysseus, his father, in his home.

Now as he prayed a bird flew from the right hand and over the horses'
heads. It was an eagle, and it bore in its claws a goose that belonged
to the farmyard. Telemachus asked Menelaus was this not a sign from
Zeus, the greatest of the Gods.

Then said Helen, 'Hear me now, for I will prophesy from this sign to
you. Even as yonder eagle has flown down from the mountain and killed a
goose of the farmyard, so will Odysseus come from far to his home and
kill the wooers who are there.'

'May Zeus grant that it be so,' said Telemachus. He spoke and lashed the
horses, and they sped across the plain.

When they came near the city of Pylos, Telemachus spoke to his comrade,
Peisistratus, and said:

'Do not take me past my ship, son of Nestor. Thy good father expects me
to retur