, thinking that it
was another false vision, sent by some hostile deity to mock her
widowhood.

What a sound was that for the lonely watcher before the house!
"Patience, fond, sad heart!" he murmured to himself, "this very night
thou shalt hold me in thine arms, and sob out thy sorrows on my
breast." With that he rose to his feet, and lifting up his hands to
heaven put up a prayer to Zeus: "Dread sire of gods, if with good will
ye have brought me thus far, after so many perils by land and by
water, send me a sign from heaven, and reveal unto me your purpose by
the lips of one of those that be within the house."

A loud peal of thunder was heard in answer to his prayer; and a second
sign was sent by the voice of a woman in the house. She was one of
twelve maid-servants, whose duty it was to grind wheat and barley for
the daily supply of bread. The others had finished their task, but
she, being old and weak, was still toiling at her mill. When she heard
the thunder she stopped for a moment, and thus uttered her complaint:
"Thunder in a clear sky! That bodes ill to some that be here. Heaven
grant that it may be to the wooers, for whom day by day I suffer this
cruel toil, making meal for them! May this be the very last time that
they sit down to meat in this house!" So saying, she returned to her
labour, and Odysseus rejoiced at the double sign which had been
vouchsafed to him.

By this time the whole household was afoot, and a score of busy hands
were at work, under the direction of Eurycleia, preparing for the
coming of the wooers. For it was a general holiday, being the festival
of Apollo, and the guests were expected earlier than usual. Some went
to the public fountain to fetch water, some swept and sprinkled the
floor, and some sponged the tables and scoured the drinking vessels.
Presently the herdsmen came in, driving before them the beasts for
sacrifice; and of these the first to arrive was Eumaeus, who brought
three fat hogs as his part of the daily tribute. Leaving his charge to
grub about in the courtyard, he came up to Odysseus, and inquired how
he had fared among the wooers on the previous day. "I fared ill,"
answered Odysseus, "and ill fare the villains who deal thus with the
stranger under another man's roof!"

A rude voice here broke in upon him, and Melanthius the goatherd
thrust himself between them, jostling Odysseus, and reviling him in
brutal terms, "What, still loitering here, thou vagabond? Wilt t