ANTONIO CANOVA (1)

ANTONIO CANOVA (1)

A good many years ago there lived in Itly a little boy whose name was Antonio Canova.

He lived with his grandfather, for his own father was dead.

His grandfather was a stone-cutter, and he was very poor.

Antonio was a puny lad,　and not strong enough to work. 

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puny lad：ひ弱な少年   

He did not care to play with the other boys of the town.

But he liked to go with his grandfather to the stone-yard.

While the old man was busy, cutting and trimming the great blocks of stone, the lad would play among the chips.

Sometimes he would make a little statue of soft clay.
Sometimes he would take hammer and chisel, and try to cut a statue from the piece of rock.

He showed so much skill that his grandfather was delighted.

" The boy will be a sculptor some day, " he said.

Then when they went home in the evening, the grandmother would say, " What have you been doing today, my little sculptor. "

And she would take him upon her lap and sing to him, or tell him stories that filled his mind with picture 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.

(つづく　1/4)