All went well until it was time to spread the table for dinner. Then
there was a crash in the dining room, and a man rushed into the
kitchen with some pieces of marble in his hands. He was pale, and
trembling with fright.
"What shall I do? What shall I do?" he cried. "I have broken the
statue that was to stand at the center of the table. I cannot make the
table look pretty without the statue. What will the Count say?"
And now all the other servants were in trouble. Was the dinner to be a
failure after all? For everything de-pend-ed on having the table
nicely arranged. The Count would be very angry.
"Ah, what shall we do?" they all asked.
Then little Antonio Ca-no-va left his pans and kettles, and went up to
the man who had caused the trouble.
"If you had another statue, could you arrange the table?" he asked.
"Cer-tain-ly," said the man; "that is, if the statue were of the right
length and height."
"Will you let me try to make one?" asked Anto-nio "Perhaps I can make
something that will do."
The man laughed.
"Non-sense!" he cried. "Who are you, that you talk of making statues
on an hour's notice?"
"I am Antonio Canova," said the lad.
"Let the boy try what he can do," said the servants, who knew him.
Pages:
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134