must be acknowledged, I have done so with some ability.

MRS. S. (_not attending to him, but turning to Emma_). But does it not
make your fingers ache to play such difficult music?

DOMINIE. Only when her teacher raps her on the knuckles, and that I
never do.

(_Emma looks at the parrot which is hanging in the parlor, and
strokes the great bull-dog._)

JOHN SPRIGGINS (_entering with his daughter Lizzie_). Herr Dominie, will
you be so good as to hear our daughter Lizzie play, and advise us
whether to continue in the same course. Music is, in fact, hereditary in
our family. My wife played a little, too, in her youth, and I once
played on the violin; but my teacher told me I had no talent for it, no
ear, and no idea of time, and that I scraped too much.

DOMINIE. Very curious! He must have been mistaken!

JOHN S. But I always was devotedly fond of music. My father and my
grandfather, on our estate, often used to play the organ for the
organist in church, and the tenants always knew when they were playing.
My father used often to tell that story at table. Ha, ha! It was very
droll!

DOMINIE. Curious!

JOHN S. Well, to return to my violin. I gave it up after a year, because
it seemed rather scratchy to me, too.