And so, since nothing else could be done, the man allowed him to try.
On the kitchen table there was a large square lump of yellow butter.
Two hundred pounds the lump weighed, and it had just come in, fresh
and clean, from the dairy on the mountain. With a kitchen knife in his
hand, Antonio began to cut and carve this butter. In a few minutes he
had molded it into the shape of a crouching lion; and all the servants
crowded around to see it.
"How beautiful!" they cried. "It is a great deal pret-ti-er than the
statue that was broken."
When it was finished, the man carried it to its place.
"The table will be hand-som-er by half than I ever hoped to make it,"
he said.
When the Count and his friends came in to dinner, the first thing they
saw was the yellow lion.
"What a beautiful work of art!" they cried. "None but a very great
artist could ever carve such a figure; and how odd that he should
choose to make it of butter!" And then they asked the Count to tell
them the name of the artist.
[Illustration: "The servants crowded around to see it."]
"Truly, my friends," he said, "this is as much of a surprise to me as
to you." And then he called to his head servant, and asked him where
he had found so wonderful a statue.
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