of their sins and of the Passion of Christ. Then St. Francis
gave Brother Ruffino his habit and put on his own (for Brother Leo had
brought them to the church), and they returned home rejoicing.

Once when St. Francis was walking along the road he saw a great crowd of
birds in a field, and saying he _must_ go and preach to his "little
sisters, the birds," he went among them and preached a wonderful sermon
to them, telling them how they ought to praise God for all he had given
them. And the birds didn't fly away, but all crowded round to listen. At
the end St. Francis gave them his blessing and told them to fly away,
and they rose up in the air and flew away in the form of a great cross,
to north, south, east, and west. St. Francis loved all animals, even
earthworms, which he would pick up tenderly from the path and put into
safety. And he would never allow people to cut trees quite down, but
made them leave the roots, so that they might grow up all green and
beautiful once more. Little children he loved, too. Some day I will tell
you the story of a little boy who joined his Order and became a little
Friar, and had the great joy of seeing St. Francis at prayer one night
out on the mountain-side, with a wonderful gold light all round him, and
heavenly visions comforting him. But the little boy had to promise St.
Francis he would never tell anyone what he had seen as long as St.
Francis was living.

I must leave, too, the story of how St. Francis tamed a huge, fierce
wolf; and of how he went right into the Saracen camp during a Crusade
and preached to the Sultan of Turkey, and told him to be a Christian;
and how he called a great gathering of the Friars at the Portiuncola, to
which _five thousand brothers_ came, and how the people of the cities
round came with carts full of food and fed the Friars for more than a
week's time, freely. All these stories and many more I must leave, and
go on now to tell you of the wonderful, beautiful, and holy end of St.
Francis's life, and of the mysterious thing that happened to him. I want
you to remember that this mysterious thing is _perfectly true_, and
really did happen to St. Francis, and is a sign of how very closely his
soul had become united to Jesus Christ and His Passion on the Cross--for
he had never forgotten the heavenly message he had found in the book of
the Gospels: "He that will come after Me, let him deny himself, _and
take up his cross_, and follow Me."

St. Francis's