How many girls go on strumming on the piano and singing all the evening, till every other house in the block is posted as " To Let," who have not the slightest idea of either harmony or melody, bass or treble, a sharp or a flat! But the milkmaid at the dairy and the farm, who was never taught a note in the scale, she can sing like the night- ingale and make men stop to listen as if suddenly they heard sweet sounds from heaven. O that the town miss with no talent could sometimes change places with the country lass who has music in her throat, in her feet, and in her heart. All we can say is, if the melo- dious dairy-maid cannot be our songstress, for pity's sake don't let the inharmonious mademoiselle of fashion, whose throat is like a nutmeg grater, make us vibrate with her discord from top to toe. Thanks for this every day improving land of ours in which strangers- are so quick in detecting merit and so generous in bringing it to the front. The boy or girl with real genius in them, however poorly born, and clad, and fed, is pretty sure in America of recognition and encou ragement. All the assistance and introductions in the world, however, will not change a stale loaf into a leg of mutton, or make copper pass current as gold. Let fathers and mothers, therefore, be sure they do not encourage vain hopes in their children by telling each child who can jingle rhymes together that he or she is born a poet; that their vocation is music, because they can make a noise ; painting, because they can daub unlikenesses ; navigation, because they have 148 THE hearthstone; or, life at home. been on a ferry-boat ; or oratory, because they use big words and roll out their platitudes. When you see one advertisement, " Wanted a good hand at cobbling," and another, "Wanted a professor of lan- guages," be quite sure in your own mind which position, if either, you are fitted for before you apply for it. Many a lawyer would have done well at feeding swine; many a minister would make a fortune as a ventriloquist, so sound is he in wind and so windy in sound; many an actor should turn scene-shifter, and some scene- shifters have before now made good actors ; many a physician should be dressing leather instead of wounds, and be engaged in lath and plaster instead of plaster without the lath, unless his patient serve for it. A life insurance agent who will feel your mental and financial pulse and harrow up your soul about sudden death, loss of faculties, untimely grave, starving family, suffering children going around in ten years' time begging their bread or supported by the State, has often been a parson in his earlier years, and he turns his pulpit moral suasion and fearful pictures to good account in his business. There are bishops who would do credit to a bar-room, and circuit preachers who are more amusing than the showman.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

How many girls go on strumming on the piano and singing all the evening, till every other house in the block is posted as " To Let," who have not the slightest idea of either harmony or melody, bass or treble, a sharp or a flat! But the milkmaid at the dairy and the farm, who was never taught a note in the scale, she can sing like the nightingale and make men stop to listen as if suddenly they heard sweet sounds from heaven. O that the town miss with no talent could sometimes change places with the country lass who has music in her throat, in her feet, and in her heart. All we can say is, if the melodious dairy-maid cannot be our songstress, for pity's sake don't let the inharmonious mademoiselle of fashion, whose throat is like a nutmeg grater, make us vibrate with her discord from top to toe. Thanks for this every day improving land of ours in which strangers are so quick in detecting merit and so generous in bringing it to the front. The boy or girl with real genius in them, however poorly born, and clad, and fed, is pretty sure in America of recognition and encouragement. All the assistance and introductions in the world, however, will not change a stale loaf into a leg of mutton, or make copper pass current as gold. Let fathers and mothers, therefore, be sure they do not encourage vain hopes in their children by telling each child who can jingle rhymes together that he or she is born a poet; that their vocation is music, because they can make a noise ; painting, because they can daub unlikenesses ; navigation, because they have 148 THE hearthstone; or, life at home. been on a ferry-boat ; or oratory, because they use big words and roll out their platitudes. When you see one advertisement, " Wanted a good hand at cobbling," and another, "Wanted a professor of languages," be quite sure in your own mind which position, if either, you are fitted for before you apply for it. Many a lawyer would have done well at feeding swine; many a minister would make a fortune as a ventriloquist, so sound is he in wind and so windy in sound; many an actor should turn scene-shifter, and some sceneshifters have before now made good actors ; many a physician should be dressing leather instead of wounds, and be engaged in lath and plaster instead of plaster without the lath, unless his patient serve for it. A life insurance agent who will feel your mental and financial pulse and harrow up your soul about sudden death, loss of faculties, untimely grave, starving family, suffering children going around in ten years' time begging their bread or supported by the State, has often been a parson in his earlier years, and he turns his pulpit moral suasion and fearful pictures to good account in his business. There are bishops who would do credit to a bar-room, and circuit preachers who are more amusing than the showman.

The hearthstone; or, Life at home