Page:The Iliad and Odyssey of Homer (IA iliadodysseyofho02home).pdf/380

372 Meantime, and will destroy me also soon, As I expect, but heav'n disposes all. Eumæus! haste, my father! bear with speed News to Penelope that I am safe, And have arrived from Pylus; I will wait Till thou return; and well beware that none Hear thee beside, for I have many foes. To whom Eumæus, thou didst thus reply. It is enough. I understand. Thou speak'st To one intelligent. But say beside, Shall I not also, as I go, inform Distress'd Laertes? who while yet he mourn'd Ulysses only, could o'ersee the works, And dieted among his menials oft As hunger prompted him, but now, they say, Since thy departure to the Pylian shore, He neither eats as he was wont, nor drinks, Nor oversees his hinds, but sighing sits And weeping, wasted even to the bone. Him then Telemachus answer'd discrete. Hard though it be, yet to his tears and sighs Him leave we now. We cannot what we would. For, were the ordering of all events Referr'd to our own choice, our first desire Should be to see my father's glad return. But once thy tidings told, wander not thou In quest of Him, but hither speed again. Rather request my mother that she send