[Footnote 1: 2 Kings xix. 35.]

But the taunts of fools and knaves have no sting for honest ears.
Without another word Telemachus left that gibing mob, and went
straight to the strong-room where his father's treasure was stored.
There lay heaps of gold and silver, and chests full of fine raiment,
and great jars of fragrant olive-oil. Along the wall was a long row of
portly casks, filled with the choicest wine; there they had stood
untouched for twenty years, awaiting the master's return. All this
wealth was given in charge to Eurycleia, the nurse of Telemachus, a
wise and careful dame, who watched the chamber day and night. Her
Telemachus now summoned, and said: "Fill me twelve jars of wine--not
the best, which thou art keeping for my father, but the next best to
that. And take twenty measures of barley-meal, and store it in sacks
of leather, and keep all these things together till I send for them.
Keep close counsel, and above all let not my mother know. I am going
to Sparta and to sandy Pylos to inquire of my father's return; and I
shall start in the evening when my mother is gone to rest."

"Who put such a thought into thy heart?" cried Eurycleia in wailing
tones. "Why wilt thou take this dreadful journey, thou, an only child,
so loved, and so dear? Odysseus is lost for ever, and if thou go we
shall lose thee too, for the suitors will plot thy ruin while thou art
far away."

"Fear nothing for me," answered Telemachus, "Heaven's eye is upon me,
and the hand of Zeus is spread over me. Swear to me now that thou wilt
not tell my mother until twelve days have past." Eurycleia swore as he
bade her, and at once set about making the preparations for his