Then wise Penelope answered him, saying:  ’Go, call him hither, that he may speak to me face to face.  But let these men sit in the doorway and take their pleasure, or even here in the house, since their heart is glad.  For their own wealth lies unspoiled at home, bread and sweet wine, and thereon do their servants feed.  But they resorting to our house day by day sacrifice oxen and sheep and fat goats, and keep revel and drink the dark wine recklessly; and, lo, our great wealth is wasted, for there is no man now alive, such as Odysseus was, to keep ruin from the house.  Oh, if Odysseus might come again to his own country; soon would he and his son avenge the violence of these men!’

Even so she spake, and Telemachus sneezed loudly, and around the roof rang wondrously.  And Penelope laughed, and straightway spake to Eumaeus winged words: 

’Go, call me the stranger, even so, into my presence.  Dost thou not mark how my son has sneezed a blessing on all my words?  Wherefore no half-wrought doom shall befal the wooers every one, nor shall any avoid death and the fates.  Yet another thing will I say, and do thou ponder it in thy heart.  If I shall find that he himself speaks nought but truth, I will clothe him with a mantle and a doublet, goodly raiment.’

So she spake, and the swineherd departed when he heard that saying, and stood by the stranger and spake winged words: 

’Father and stranger, wise Penelope, the mother of Telemachus, is calling for thee, and her mind bids her inquire as touching her lord, albeit she has sorrowed much already.  And if she shall find that thou dost speak nought but truth, she will clothe thee in a mantle and a doublet, whereof thou standest most in need.  Moreover thou shalt beg thy bread through the land and shalt fill thy belly, and whosoever will, shall give to thee.’

Then the steadfast goodly Odysseus answered him, saying:  ’Eumaeus, soon would I tell all the truth to the daughter of Icarius, wise Penelope, for well I know his story, and we have borne our travail together.  But I tremble before the throng of the froward wooers, whose outrage and violence reach even to the iron heaven.  For even now, as I was going through the house, when this man struck and pained me sore, and that for no ill deed, neither Telemachus nor any other kept off the blow.  Wherefore now, bid Penelope tarry in the chambers, for all her eagerness, till the going down of the sun, and then let her ask me concerning her lord, as touching the day of his returning, and let her give me a seat yet nearer to the fire, for behold, I have sorry raiment, and thou knowest it thyself, since I made my supplication first to thee.’

Even so he spake, and the swineherd departed when he heard that saying.  And as he crossed the threshold Penelope spake to him: 

’Thou bringest him not, Eumaeus:  what means the wanderer hereby?  Can it be that he fears some one out of measure, or is he even ashamed of tarrying in the house?  A shamefaced man makes a bad beggar.’