Sometimes he would make a little statue of soft clay; sometimes
he would take hammer and chisel, and try to cut a statue from a piece
of rock. He showed so much skill that his grandfather was de-light-ed.
"The boy will be a sculp-tor some day," he said.
Then when they went home in the evening, the grand-moth-er would say,
"What have you been doing to-day, my little sculp-tor?"
And she would take him upon her lap and sing to him, or tell him
stories that filled his mind with pictures of wonderful and beautiful
things. And the next day, when he went back to the stone-yard, he
would try to make some of those pictures in stone or clay.
There lived in the same town a rich man who was called the Count.
Sometimes the Count would have a grand dinner, and his rich friends
from other towns would come to visit him. Then Antonio's grandfather
would go up to the Count's house to help with the work in the kitchen;
for he was a fine cook as well as a good stone-cut-ter.
It happened one day that Antonio went with his grandfather to the
Count's great house. Some people from the city were coming, and there
was to be a grand feast. The boy could not cook, and he was not old
enough to wait on the table; but he could wash the pans and kettles,
and as he was smart and quick, he could help in many other ways.
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