"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.
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.