is
very plainness of speech was his strength.

His delight in the beauties of nature never left him. Sunset and
sunrise, mountain and plain, river and sea alike, filled him with joy,
and all spoke to him of the glory of God. Flowers always gave him
especial pleasure. He insisted that his disciples should always
reserve some portion of their gardens for the growth of flowers as
well as vegetables, "to give them a foretaste of the eternal sweetness
of Heaven." When the brethren went to the fields to chop wood, Francis
always warned them to take care of the roots, so that the trunk might
sprout again and live. To take life of any kind was intolerable to
him. For this reason he always lifted the worms out of his path and
laid them at the side of the road, lest an incautious traveller might
crush them.

His love and power over animals are almost too well known to need
mention. He always spoke of them as his brothers and sisters. He
disdained nothing. All were to him alike beautiful, because the work
of his God. For a long time, he had a tame sheep, that followed him
about wherever it could get a chance. This sheep always seemed to know
exactly how to behave under all circumstances. When the brethren knelt
at prayers, it knelt too; when they sang, it joined in with a
not-too-loud little bleat!

Near his room, at the Portiuncula, there lived a grasshopper in a
fig-vine. This little insect would hop on his finger at his bidding,
and when told to "sing and praise the Lord," used to chirp with all
its might! Birds, insects, and even fishes and wild animals, we are
told, all recognized in Francis a friend, and readily did his bidding.

[Sidenote: _Two Small Mites._]

Francis' love for God was supreme, and his belief that God loved him
never wavered. To make people love and know God was his one burning
desire. It was not so much God's service he delighted in as God
Himself. He never lost sight of the Master in the Work, and to a large
extent this was the key to all his success. His work was the outcome
of his love. After we have received, the first natural impulse is to
give. Francis possessed "two small mites," an ancient historian
writes--"they were his body and his soul. He gave them both, bravely
and freely, according to his custom."

Whatever came--joy, sorrow, success, failure, pain, weariness,
sickness, insult, or favor--Francis took as direct from the hand of
God, and blessed Him for all. Why shouldn't he? His heart