Maid

"O print-clad damsel, fresh and fair, Bending above the threshold there On supple knees and swaying line, And honeyed curve—dear maid, be mine."

"Now the wooers turned to the dance and to gladsome song, and made them merry, and waited till evening should come; and as they made merry dark evening came upon them. Then they went, each man to his house, to take their rest. But Telemachus, where his chamber was built in the beautiful court, high, in a place of wide outlook, thither went to his bed, pondering many things in mind; and with him, bearing blazing torches, went true-hearted Eurycleia, daughter of Ops, son of Peisenor, Her long ago Laertes had bought with his wealth, when she was in her first youth, and gave for her the price of twenty oxen; and he honoured her even as he honoured his faithful wife in his halls, but he never lay with her in love, for he shunned the wrath of his wife. She it was who bore for Telemachus the blazing torches; for she of all the handmaids loved him most, and had nursed him when he was a child."

"Now when they came to the beautiful streams of the river, where were the washing tanks that never failed—for abundant clear water welled up from beneath. and flowed over, to cleanse garments however soiled—there they loosed the mules from under the waggon and drove them along the eddying river to graze on the honey-sweet water-grass, and themselves took in their arms the raiment from the waggon, and bore it into the dark water, and trampled it in the trenches, busily vying each with each. Now when they had washed the garments, and had cleansed them of all the stains, they spread them out in rows on the shore of the sea where the waves dashing against the land washed the pebbles cleanest; and they, after they had bathed and anointed themselves richly with oil, took their meal on the river’s banks, and waited for the clothing to dry in the bright sunshine."