tery among the
mountains. He knocked at the door and begged for help. The monks
regarded this strange half-naked applicant with much suspicion, and
one can hardly blame them. Nevertheless they received him, and gave
him employment in their kitchen as assistant to the cook, to do the
rough and heavy work. His food was of the commonest and coarsest, and
it never seemed to occur to any of them that he would be the better
for a few more clothes. When his solitary garment appeared in imminent
danger of dropping to pieces he left the monastery and went on a
little further to a neighbouring town where a friend of his lived. He
made his way to this friend and asked him out of charity to provide
him with a worn garment to cover his nakedness. The case was
manifestly an urgent one, and the friend bestowed upon him a suit of
clothes consisting of a tunic, leather belt, shoes, and a stick. It
was very much the kind of costume then worn by the hermits.

From here he started back again to St. Damian's. He stopped on his way
to visit a lazar-house, and help in the care of the lepers. He had
quite gotten over all his early antipathies, and it was a joy to him
now to minister to those poor diseased ones. Probably he would have
spent a much longer season here if it were not that again he seemed to
hear the same voice calling him to repair the ruined church. So he
left the lazar-house and proceeded on his way. He told his friend the
priest that he was in no way disappointed or cast down, and that he
had good reason to believe that he would be able to accomplish his
purpose.

There was only one way in which he could attain this end. Money he had
none, neither did he know of anyone who loved God and His cause well
enough to expend a little of their riches in rebuilding His house.
Next day saw him at work. Up and down the streets of his native town
he went begging for stones to rebuild St. Damian.

"He who gives me one stone shall receive one blessing, he who gives me
two will have two blessings, and he who gives me three, three
blessings."

[Sidenote: "_He is quite Mad._"]

The people were unable to do anything at first from pure
astonishment. Francis Bernardone, the gay cavalier, the leader of
feasts and song, sueing in the streets like a common beggar! They
could hardly believe their eyes! "Truly the fellow was mad," they said
to each other! But he did not look mad. His smile was as sweet as
ever, and the native, polished, courtly