d all this was a
marvelous thing in a cruel time, when human life was accounted of slight
worth by fierce barons and ruffling marauders.

For the bees he set honey and wine in the winter, lest they should feel
the nip of the cold too keenly; and bread for the birds, that they all,
but especially "my brother Lark," should have joy of Christmastide, and
at Rieti a brood of redbreasts were the guests of the house and raided
the tables while the brethren were at meals; and when a youth gave St.
Francis the turtledoves he had snared, the Saint had nests made for
them, and there they laid their eggs and hatched them, and fed from the
hands of the brethren.

Out of affection a fisherman once gave him a great tench, but he put it
back into the clear water of the lake, bidding it love God; and the fish
played about the boat till St. Francis blessed it and bade it go.

"Why dost thou torment my little brothers the Lambs," he asked of a
shepherd, "carrying them bound thus and hanging from a staff, so that
they cry piteously?" And in exchange for the lambs he gave the shepherd
his cloak. And at another time seeing amid a flock of goats one white
lamb feeding, he was concerned that he had nothing but his brown robe to
offer for it (for it reminded him of our Lord among the Pharisees); but
a merchant came up and paid for it and gave it him, and he took it with
him to the city and preached about it so that the hearts of those
hearing him were melted. Afterwards the lamb was left in the care of a
convent of holy women, and to the Saint's great delight, these wove him
a gown of the lamb's innocent wool.

Fain would I tell of the coneys that took refuge in the folds of his
habit, and of the swifts which flew screaming in their glee while he was
preaching; but now it is time to speak of the sermon which he preached
to a great multitude of birds in a field by the roadside, when he was on
his way to Bevagno. Down from the trees flew the birds to hear him, and
they nestled in the grassy bosom of the field, and listened till he had
done. And these were the words he spoke to them:--

"Little birds, little sisters mine, much are you holden to God your
Creator; and at all times and in every place you ought to praise Him.
Freedom He has given you to fly everywhere; and raiment He has given
you, double and threefold. More than this, He preserved your kind in the
Ark, so that your race might not come to an end. Still more do you owe
Him for th