is
that guest whom all the wooers dishonour in the hall.'

Then hearing Eurycleia say these words, Penelope sprang out of bed and
put her arms round the nurse's neck. 'O tell me--if what thou dost say
be true--tell me how this stranger slew the wooers, who were so many.'

'I did not see the slaying,' Eurycleia said, 'but I heard the groaning
of the men as they were slain. And then I found Odysseus standing
amongst many dead men, and it comforted my heart to see him standing
there like a lion aroused. Come with me now, lady, that you may both
enter into your heart's delight--you that have suffered so much of
affliction. Thy lord hath come alive to his own hearth, and he hath
found his wife and his son alive and well.'

'Ah no!' said Penelope, 'ah no, Odysseus hath not returned. He who hath
slain the wooers is one of the deathless gods, come down to punish them
for their injustice and their hardheartedness. Odysseus long ago lost
the way of his returning, and he is lying dead in some far-off land.'

'No, no,' said Eurycleia. 'I can show thee that it is Odysseus indeed
who is in the hall. On his foot is the scar that the tusk of a boar gave
him in the old days. I spied it when I was washing his feet last night,
and I would have told thee of it, but he clapped a hand across my mouth
to stop my speech. Lo, I stake my life that it is Odysseus, and none
other who is in the hall below.'

Saying this she took Penelope by the hand and led her from the upper
chamber into the hall. Odysseus was standing by a tall pillar. He waited
there for his wife to come and speak to him. But Penelope stood still,
and gazed long upon him, and made no step towards him.

Then said Telemachus, 'Mother, can it be that thy heart is so hard? Here
is my father, and thou wilt not go to him nor question him at all.'

Said Penelope, 'My mind is amazed and I have no strength to speak, nor
to ask him aught, nor even to look on him face to face. If this is
indeed Odysseus who hath come home, a place has to be prepared for him.'

[Illustration]

Then Odysseus spoke to Telemachus and said, 'Go now to the bath, and
make thyself clean of the stains of battle. I will stay and speak with
thy lady mother.'

'Strange lady,' said he to Penelope, 'is thy heart indeed so hard? No
other woman in the world, I think, would stand so aloof from her husband
who, after so much toil and so many trials, has come back after twenty
years to his own hearth. Is there no