Therefore, I award the tithe to
myself; but yet, because I am done with all things, I give it unto
you.'
So he flung the bread and the strips of bacon among the beggars, and
they fought with many cries until the last scrap was eaten. But
meanwhile the friars nailed the gleeman to his cross, and set it
upright in the hole, and shovelled the earth in at the foot, and
trampled it level and hard. So then they went away, but the beggars
stared on, sitting round the cross. But when the sun was sinking,
they also got up to go, for the air was getting chilly. And as soon
as they had gone a little way, the wolves, who had been showing
themselves on the edge of a neighbouring coppice, came nearer, and
the birds wheeled closer and closer. 'Stay, outcasts, yet a little
while,' the crucified one called in a weak voice to the beggars, 'and
keep the beasts and the birds from me.' But the beggars were angry
because he had called them outcasts, so they threw stones and mud at
him, and went their way. Then the wolves gathered at the foot of the
cross, and the birds flew lower and lower. And presently the birds
lighted all at once upon his head and arms and shoulders, and began
to peck at him, and the wolves began to eat his feet. 'Outcasts,' he
moaned, 'have you also turned against the outcast?'
OUT OF THE ROSE.
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