A LITTLE GRECIAN SLAVE.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 June 1932, Page 7 (Supplement)

A LITTLE GRECIAN SLAVE.

The wind caught back the scant fold of his blue tunic and made his gold hair stream ’behind him a® Eumaeos stood in the prow of the’ ship./ The oarsmen bent in rhythm, singing' aS they rowed, and the high prow cut the blue water, curling it back in creamy ■waves. There, so distant that it was no more than a shadow upon the horizon, lay Ithaca. The slave- girl, who had stolen him away from his home, watched him. She was glad that he had stopped crying. She herself had been stolen by pirates when she was small, so she jknew just how he was grieving. It was only a few days ago that 'she had snatched him up and fled aboard the Phoenician ship so that she might buy her own freedom by selling him in Ithaca. “Shall I ever go back, ever see my father again?” he asked her. “Never. But you will soon forget. You are young.”

In Ithaca Eumaeos stood m the courtyard of the palace of the great Laertes. Other slaves had called him lucky when he had been sold to that household. He watched the pretty, bustling scene. Ladies went a'boflt their household tasks weaving, spinning, embroidering. A pretty girl ran out, followed by her maidens bearing the household linen. Ho watched them whip up the mules and drive off to' the washing stones, fair, broad stones on the border of the river. Queens and princesses and great ladies took their part in the household tasks in those days.

Within the portico the..loveliest lady of them all, seated among her women, put down' the spindle laden with purple wool and beckoned him to her. He went and--stood among the women, lifting brave eyes to her. a ' “Little son,” she said, touching his cheek, “will you be happy with me, do