and tell them that I beseech them no longer to do wrong, but to fear
and love God; and if this they will do, I will provide for them so that
all their days they shall not lack food and drink." Then Brother
Angelo did as he was bidden, and the robbers returned with him and
became God's bedesmen and died in His service.

Not to men alone but to all living things on earth and air and water
was St. Francis most gracious and loving. They were all his little
brothers and sisters, and he forgot them not, still less scorned or
slighted them, but spoke to them often and blessed them, and in return
they showed him great love and sought to be of his fellowship. He bade
his companions keep plots of ground for their little sisters the
flowers, and to these lovely and speechless creatures he spoke, with no
great fear that they would not understand his words. And all this was
a marvellous 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 turtle-doves 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 th