e more repulsive.[21] The neglected sufferer is as much
blinded by love of him who comes to visit him as the child by its love
for its mother. He believes him to be all powerful; at his approach the
most painful sufferings are eased or disappear.

This love inspired by the sympathy of an affectionate heart may become
so deep as to appear at times supernatural; the dying have been known to
recover consciousness in order to look for the last time into the face,
not of some member of the family, but of the friend who has tried to be
the sunshine of their last days. The ties of pure love are stronger than
the bonds of flesh and blood. Francis had many a time sweet experience
of this; from the time of his arrival at the leper-house he felt that if
he had lost his life he was about to find it again.

Encouraged by his sojourn among the lepers, he returned to St. Damian
and went to work, filled with joy and ardor, his heart as much in the
sunshine as the Umbrian plain in this beautiful month of May. After
having fashioned for himself a hermit's dress, he began to go into the
squares and open places of the city. There having sung a few hymns, he
would announce to those who gathered around him his project of restoring
the chapel. "Those who will give me one stone," he would add with a
smile, "shall have a reward; those who give me two shall have two
rewards, and those who give me three shall have three."

Many deemed him mad, but others were deeply moved by the remembrance of
the past. As for Francis, deaf to mockery, he spared himself no labor,
carrying upon his shoulders, so ill-fitted for severe toil, the stones
which were given him.[22]

During this time the poor priest of St. Damian felt his heart swelling
with love for this companion who had at first caused him such
embarrassment, and he strove to prepare for him his favorite dishes.
Francis soon perceived it. His delicacy took alarm at the expense which
he caused his friend, and, thanking him, he resolved to beg his food
from door to door.

It was not an easy task. The first time, when at the end of his round he
glanced at the broken food in his wallet, he felt his courage fail him.
But the thought of being so soon unfaithful to the spouse to whom he had
plighted his faith made his blood run cold with shame and gave him
strength to eat ravenously.[23]

Each hour, so to speak, brought to him a new struggle. One day he was
going through the town begging for oil for th