The Little Bedesman of Christ 183

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 broth-
ers 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 to 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 the lamb’s innocent wool.

Fain would I tell of the coneys that took
refuge in the folds of his habit, and of the
swifts which flew screaming in their glee
while he was preaching; but now it is ‘time
' to speak of the sermon which he preached to
a great multitude of birds in a field by the