He tells her how he built their bed. She told him that she would move his bed. The bed was made from a living olive tree that Odysseus had planted; nobody but Odysseus and Penelope knew this. Odysseus was outraged as moving it would have damaged the bed greatly, and would be near to impossible. He tells her about the history of the bed and what it actuallly is, how it got in their house, and how their house was built around that tree. Penelope, still not quite sure that the beggar was indeed her husband, tested him. She ordered her maid to make up Odysseus' bed and move it from their bedchamber into hall outside his room. Odysseus was initially furious when he heard this because one of the bed posts was made from a living olive tree - he himself had designed it this way, and thus it could not be moved unless done by a god; he told her this, and since only Odysseus and Penelope knew this, Penelope accepted that he was her husband.
