ecstasy, and saw a hand pointing in the sky.

When presently the sun had slipped behind the mountains, the man of God
arose from his knees and took the path to the Monastery. On the white,
silent road thither, he met a beggar, who asked him an alms for the love
of God.

"Alas!" he told him, "I have nothing but my gown, and the Superior has
forbidden me to cut it in two so as to give away the half. Therefore I
cannot divide it with you. But if you love me, my son, you will take it
off me whole and undivided."

On hearing these words, the beggar promptly stripped the Friar of his
gown.

So Fra Giovanni went on his way naked under the falling snow, and
entered the city. As he was crossing the Piazza with nothing on but a
linen cloth about his loins, the children who were running at play in
the Great Square made mock at him. In derision, they shook their fists
in his face with the thumb stuck between the first and middle fingers,
and threw snow at him mixed with mud and small stones.

Now there lay in the Great Square some logs of timber for the woodwork
of a house, and one of the logs happened to be balanced across another.
Two children ran and took their places, one at each end of the beam, and
began playing see-saw--two of the same children who had made mock of the
holy man and thrown stones at him.

He went up to them now smiling, and said: