had done them themselves!"

... A few days after, St. Francis was sitting before the fire,
and the novice drew near to speak to him anew about his psalter.

"When you have your psalter," said Francis to him, "you will want
a breviary, and when you have a breviary you will seat yourself
in a pulpit like a great prelate and will beckon to your
companion, 'Bring me my breviary!'"

St. Francis said this with great vivacity, then taking up some
ashes he scattered them over the head of the novice, repeating,
"There is the breviary, there is the breviary!"

Several days after, St. Francis being at Portiuncula and walking
up and down on the roadside not far from his cell, the same
Brother came again to speak to him about his psalter. "Very well,
go on," said Francis to him, "you have only to do what your
minister tells you." At these words the novice went away, but
Francis began to reflect on what he had said, and suddenly
calling to the friar, he cried, "Wait for me! wait for me!" When
he had caught up to him, "Retrace your steps a little way. I beg
you," he said. "Where was I when I told you to do whatever your
minister told you as to the psalter?" Then falling upon his knees
on the spot pointed out by the friar, he prostrated himself at
his feet: "Pardon, my brother, pardon!" he cried, "for he who
would be Brother Minor ought to have nothing but his clothing."

This long story is not merely precious because it shows us, even to the
smallest particular, the conflict between the Francis of the early
years, looking only to God and his conscience, and the Francis of 1220,
become a submissive monk in an Order approved by the Roman Church, but
also because it is one of those infrequent narratives where his method
shows itself with its artless realism. These allusions to the tales of
chivalry, and this freedom of manner which made a part of his success
with the masses, were eliminated from the legend with an incredible
rapidity. His spiritual sons were perhaps not ashamed of their father in
this matter, but they were so bent upon bringing out his other qualities
that they forgot a little too much the poet, the troubadour, the
_joculator Domini_.

Certain fragments, later than Thomas of Celano by more than a century,
which relate some incidents of this kind, bear for that very reason the
stamp of authenticity.

It is difficult enough to ascertain precisely wha