Page:The Story of the Iliad.djvu/264

226 "Come quick. Thetis would have somewhat of thee." And he said: "Verily, there is one in my house that was my saviour in the day of trouble; for my mother cast me out because I was lame, but Thetis and her sister received me in the sea. Nine years I dwelt with them, and hammered many a trinket in a hollow cave. Verily, I would pay the price of my life for Thetis."

Then he put away his tools, and washed himself, and took a staff in his hand, and came into the house, and sat upon a chair, and said: "Speak all thy mind. I will do thy pleasure, if it can be done." Then did Thetis tell him of her son Achilles, and of the wrong that had been done to him, and of his wrath, and of how Patroclus was dead, and that the arms that he had had were lost.

"Make me now," she said, "for him a shield and a helmet, and greaves, and a corselet." And Hephæstus answered: "Be of good cheer. Would that I could keep from him the doom of death as easily as I can make him