The Story of the Odyssey by Alfred J. Church

Athene departed to Lacedaemon that she might fetch Telemachus, and Ulysses went to the house of Eumaeus, the swineherd. A great courtyard there was, and twelve sties for the sows, and four watch-dogs, fierce as wild beasts. In each sty were penned fifty swine; but the hogs were fewer in number, for the suitors ever devoured them at their feasts. There were but three hundred and threescore in all. The swineherd himself was shaping sandals, and of his men three were with the swine in the fields, and one was driving a fat beast to the city, to be meat for the suitors. But when Ulysses came near, the dogs ran upon him, and he dropped his staff and sat down, and yet would have suffered harm, even on his own threshold; but the swineherd ran forth and drave them away with stones, and spake unto his lord, though, indeed, he knew him not, saying: --

"Old man, the dogs came near to killing thee. That would, indeed, have been a shame and a grief to me; and, verily, I have other griefs in plenty. Here I sit and sorrow for my lord, and rear the fat swine for others to devour, while he, perchance, wanders hungry over the deep, or in the land of strangers, if, indeed, he lives. But come now, old man, to my house, and tell me who thou art, and what sorrows thou hast thyself endured."