[On the following morning] Ulysses and the swineherd were already preparing their breakfast when Telemachus came up.  The dogs knew him and played round him lovingly.  “Eumaeus,” said Ulysses, “some friend of yours is coming, for I hear footsteps, and the dogs are pleased and do not bark.”

He had hardly finished speaking when his own dear son stood in the doorway.  The swineherd started up and dropped the vessels in which he was mixing the wine.  He went to meet his young master and fell on his neck and kissed him as a father would kiss an only son escaped from death.  “Light of my eyes, dear son, have you come home at last?  When you sailed away to Pylos, I never thought to see you again.  But come in and let me feast my eyes upon you; for you do not often visit us, but are kept at home in the town, watching that crowd of ruinous suitors.”

And Telemachus answered, “Gladly, good father; I have come to see you, and to hear tidings of my mother.”

Then the swineherd told him that his mother still waited patiently at home, and spent her days and nights in weeping.

[Illustration:  “DEAR SON, HAVE YOU COME HOME AT LAST?  WHEN YOU SAILED AWAY TO PYLOS, I NEVER THOUGHT TO SEE YOU AGAIN.  BUT COME IN AND LET ME FEAST MY EYES UPON YOU; FOR YOU DO NOT OFTEN VISIT US, BUT ARE KEPT AT HOME IN THE TOWN, WATCHING THAT CROWD OF RUINOUS SUITORS.”  AND TELEMACHUS ANSWERED, “GLADLY, GOOD FATHER; I HAVE COME TO SEE YOU, AND TO HEAR TIDINGS OF MY MOTHER.”  THEN THE SWINEHERD TOLD HIM THAT HIS MOTHER STILL WAITED PATIENTLY AT HOME.]

Then Telemachus went into the house, and as he came up Ulysses rose to give him his seat, but he would not take it, and said, “Keep your seat, stranger, this man shall make up another for me.”  So Ulysses sat down again, and the swineherd made a seat for Telemachus of the green brushwood and put a fleece upon it.  Then he set food before them, and when they had eaten, Telemachus asked who the stranger was, and how he had come to Ithaca.  And Eumaeus told him Ulysses’s own story and begged him to protect the wanderer.  But Telemachus thought of the suitors and did not wish to take him to the palace.

“I will give him a coat and a vest,” he said, “and shoes for his feet, and a two-edged sword, and I will send him on his way.  But I cannot take him into the house, where the suitors would mock at him and use him ill.  One man cannot restrain them, and he so young as I.”

Then Ulysses said, “Sir, if I may speak, I would say foul wrong is done you in your house, and my heart burns at the thought.  Do your people hate you, or will your brothers give you no support?  Would that I were as young as you are, and were Ulysses’s son or Ulysses himself.  I would go to the palace and fall upon all the throng, and die there, one man against a hundred, sooner than see the shameful deeds that are done in that glorious house.”

And Telemachus answered, “Hear me, stranger, and I will tell you all.  My people do not hate me, and I have no quarrel with them.  But I have no brothers to stand by me, for Zeus has never given more than one son to each generation of our line.  And there are many foemen in the house, all the princes of the islands, and they too woo my mother and threaten my life, and I cannot see how it will end.”