and give my mother to a husband."

Having thus spoken, he sat down, and Mentor [Footnote: Men'-tor.],
whom Ulysses, when he departed, set over his household, rose up in
the midst, and spake, saying: "Now henceforth never let any king
be kind and gentle in his heart or minded to work righteousness.
Let him rather be a hard man and unrighteous. For now no man of
all the people whose lord he was remembereth Ulysses. Yet he was
gentle as a father. If the suitors are minded to do evil deeds, I
hinder them not. They do them at the peril of their own heads. It
is with the people that I am wroth, to see how they sit
speechless, and cry not shame upon the suitors; and yet they are
many in number, and the suitors are few."

Then Leocritus [Footnote: Le-oc'-ri-tus.], who was one of the
suitors, answered: "Surely thy wits wander, O Mentor, that thou
biddest the people put us down. Of a truth, if Ulysses himself
should come back, and should seek to drive the suitors from the
hall, it would fare ill with him. An evil fate would he meet, if
he fought with them. As for the people, let them go to their own
houses. Let Mentor speed the young man's voyage, for he is a
friend of his house. Yet I doubt whether he will ever accomplish
it."

So he spake, and the assembly was dismissed.

But Telemachus went apart to the shore of the sea, and he washed
his hands in the water of the sea, and prayed to Athene, saying:
"Hear me, thou who didst come yesterday to the house, and bid me
take a ship, and sail across the sea, seeking tidings of my