CHAPTER XXXII.
FAMILY MUSIC.
Our grandfathers and our grandmothers were drilled in vocal music in the church or neighboring singing-school.

In that day--and for twenty-five years later--almost every household possessed and made frequent use of the Boston Academy, the Carmina Sacra, the Shawm and other collections of vocal music adapted for the use of societies and churches.

Nearly everybody sang by note, and she was dull of ear or wits who could not bear her part at sight in any simple church tune.
The pianoforte took the place of our grandmother's spinet and harpsichord, and every girl in every family was taught to play upon it after a fashion.

She who had not taste or talent for music gave it up after her marriage.

In this particular she was no more derelict than the "performer" of our times, whose florid flourish of classic music costs thousands where her grandmother's strumming cost hundreds.
The musical education of the girl of that period hardly deserved the name.