“‘My sisters, the birds, it is now my turn to speak. You have sung your sweet songs to God. Now let me tell men how good He is.’
“And the birds were silent.”
“I can quite believe it.”
“His power over animals was wonderful. Once a little hare was brought in, all alive, for the food of the brotherhood, and they were just going to kill the wee thing, when Francis came in and pitied it.
“‘Little brother leveret,’ he said. ‘How didst thou let thyself be taken?’
“The poor hare rushed from the hands of him who held it, and took refuge in the robe of the father.
“‘Nay, go back to thy home, and do not let thyself be caught again,’ he said, and they took it back to the woods and let it go.”
Just at this point they reached Chiddinglye, and as they emerged from the forest on the green, Ginepro spied a number of children playing at seesaw in a timber yard, laughing and shouting merrily.
Instantly he cried, “Oh, there they are; I love seesaw; I must go and have a turn.”
“Are we not too old for such sport?” said Martin.