Clara set herself to spinning thread for the altar-cloths and corporals which the Brothers undertook to distribute among the poor churches of the district.[17] In addition, during the earlier years, she also nursed the sick whom Francis sent to her, and St.Damian was for some time a sort of hospital.[18] One or two friars, who were called _Zealots of the Poor Ladies_, were especially charged with the care of the Sisters, making themselves huts beside the chapel, after the model of those of Portiuncula.

Francis was also near at hand; a sort of terrace four paces long overlooks the hermitage; Clara made there a tiny garden, and when, at twilight, she went thither to water her flowers, she could see, hardly half a league distant, Portiuncula standing out against the aureola of the western sky.
For several years the relations between the two houses were continual, full of charm and freedom.

The companions of Francis who received Brothers received Sisters also, at times returning from their preaching tours with a neophyte for St.Damian.[19] But such a situation could not last long.

The intimacy of Francis and Clara, the familiarity of the earlier friars and Sisters would not do as a model for the relations of the two Orders when each had some hundreds of members.

Francis himself very soon perceived this, though not so clearly as his sister-friend.