"You say true, my friends; I am not worthy to stir your pity, nor fit to
share the food of your dogs and your pigs."

The children, who were just then coming out of school, overheard what
was said, and ran after the holy man shouting:

"Madman! Madman!"--and pelted him with mud and stones.

Then Fra Giovanni went forth into the country. The city was built on the
slope of a hill, and was surrounded by vineyards and oliveyards. He
descended the hill by a hollow way, and seeing on either side the grapes
of the vines that hung down from the branches of the elms, he stretched
out his arm and blessed the clusters. Likewise he blessed the olive and
the mulberry trees and all the wheat of the lowlands.

Meantime he was both hungry and thirsty; and he took delight in thirst
and hunger.

At the end of a cross-road, he saw a wood of laurels; and it was the
habit of the Begging Friars to go and pray in the woods, amongst the
poor animals cruel men hunt and harry. Accordingly Fra Giovanni entered
the wood, and fared on by the side of a brook that ran clear and
singing on its way.

Presently he saw a flat stone beside the brook, and at the same moment a
young man of a wondrous beauty, clad in a white robe, laid a loaf of
bread on the stone, and disappeared.

And Fra Giovanni knelt down and prayed, saying: