1 There were twelve miller-women whose business it was to grind wheat and barley which are the staff of life.
2 As for herself, she was busy at her loom, shooting her golden shuttle through the warp and singing beautifully.
3 Go, then, within the house and busy yourself with your daily duties, your loom, your distaff, and the ordering of your servants.
4 It was their business to manage everything connected with the sports, so they made the ground smooth and marked a wide space for the dancers.
5 Then he went up to Telemachus and said in his ear so that none could overhear him, "My dear sir, I will now go back to the pigs, to see after your property and my own business."
6 The sons of Autolycus busied themselves with the carcass of the boar, and bound Ulysses' wound; then, after saying a spell to stop the bleeding, they went home as fast as they could.
7 But as Telemachus was thus busied, praying also and sacrificing to Minerva in the ship's stern, there came to him a man from a distant country, a seer, who was flying from Argos because he had killed a man.
8 Thus did he speak, and they did even as he had said; they went to the store room, which they entered before Melanthius saw them, for he was busy searching for arms in the innermost part of the room, so the two took their stand on either side of the door and waited.
9 While they were thus busy getting their dinner ready, Rumour went round the town, and noised abroad the terrible fate that had befallen the suitors; as soon, therefore, as the people heard of it they gathered from every quarter, groaning and hooting before the house of Ulysses.