THE GREAT WOODEN HORSE 



I. THE PUZZLED TROJANS 



OF all the wooden horses that men have ever 

 made, he was the hugest. Yet he was not 

 very handsome. Built hastily of rough-hewn 

 maple planks and of beams and spars from the 

 wrecks of unseaworthy ships, the great wonder is 

 that he was so well made. But old Epeus, who 

 planned and directed the building of the huge fel- 

 low, was a master-carpenter, the skillfuUest in 

 the world; and the rough pieces of timber were 

 fitted together with such nicety that there was no 

 crack, nor crevice, nor point of weakness, in any 

 part of the work. Certain men who were jealous 

 of Epeus's fame whispered that it was not he, 

 but the goddess Athena, who did it all; and this 

 we shall not deny. 



Early one morning the people of Troy were 

 astonished to learn that the Greeks, who had been 

 besieging their city for ten weary years, had sailed 

 away during the night. Nobody had seen them 



2IO 



